Williams Shakes It Off

Rust was the early theme of the evening for Serena Williams.

From the color of her curious-looking outfit to her erratic groundstrokes to the performance of the instant-replay system, which went down for a spell in the first set.

But none of it mattered. Williams settled down nicely, got better and better as the corrosion lifted from her shots, and turned in an emphatic performance, defeating 11th-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia, 6-2, 6-1, hitting eight aces. Their first-round match took a little more than an hour at the JPMorgan Chase Open before a half-filled Home Depot Center in Carson on Tuesday.

This was to be expected considering it was Williams’ second tournament since mid-January because of an injured knee. The roller-coaster nature of her shot-making surfaced in her opening service game: three aces, one double fault and a forehand long.

The former No. 1 Williams, who is ranked 110, seemed somewhat satisfied after the first round at the second stop of her comeback, saying she didn’t want to “peak too soon,” aiming for smaller improvements.

“I feel good. I don’t think I served well,” she said. “ ... I’m slowly but surely going in the direction I want to go. I don’t like to give myself grades but for me there’s always room for improvement.”

She took issue when someone raised the issue that she appeared to be winded during the match. “Oh really, I mean, if you want to go up against me, you’d be winded,” Williams said.

Then there was the brief breakdown of Hawk-Eye, the instant replay. There was a certain irony because without Williams, who was the famous victim of a bad overrule at the 2004 U.S. Open, there might never have been a replay system.

“I thought about that, ‘Wow, just my luck,’ ” she said. “I like it. I think it’s very useful. I’m not big on arguing calls, unless I’m 100% sure.... It gets the crowd involved. When I was watching the men play a couple of weeks ago, I felt myself saying, ‘Challenge.’ ”

Her return to Carson, scheduled for 7, was delayed until almost 8:30, mainly because of lengthy Stadium Court matches between Nathalie Dechy of France and Meghann Shaughnessy, and Vania King of Long Beach and fifth-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia.

Shaughnessy defeated Dechy, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round, needing 3 hours 4 minutes in the opening match, putting the day behind schedule.

The biggest name to depart Tuesday was No. 2 Nadia Petrova of Russia. Doubles specialist Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain defeated the slumping Petrova, 6-3, 6-2, in the second round. It was her first victory against Petrova in four matches.

Petrova entered the French Open as one of the favorites, having won three consecutive titles on clay heading into Paris. But an especially ill-timed hip injury led to a first-round exit there.

Now, Petrova is without a victory in her last three tournaments. She said that the problem is apparently totally mental.

“I feel I’m not on the court, somewhere next to it,” Petrova said. “ ... What was out there you can’t even call it a tennis match.” She said she needed to “stop feeling sorry” for herself.

Petrova’s skills of prognostication were better than her on-court skills Tuesday when she was asked about her countrywoman Kirilenko’s chances against Williams.

Ordinarily, she would have favored Kirilenko, pointing out that Williams lost to Vera Zvonareva in Cincinnati last month in the semifinals, “and it wasn’t a difficult match.” However, “Maria is quite a new player, still young and inexperienced ... nerves kicking into the match,” Petrova said.

Inexperience on the tour seemed to effect King, who is playing her second tournament on the circuit since turning professional last month. The 17-year-old King led Safina by a set and had a break point at 5-5 in the second before the Russian rallied, winning, 1-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Two Americans eliminated seeded players: Bethanie Mattek beat No. 8 Flavia Pennetta of Italy, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, in the second round, and Laura Granville defeated No. 9 Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 7-5, 6-2.