SEOUL, South Korea — Top-seeded Venus Williams cruised into the second round of the Korea Open on Tuesday, defeating American qualifier Abigail Spears 6-2, 6-3.
Despite warm conditions at Seoul's Olympic Park, the Wimbledon champion barely broke a sweat as she used her powerful serve to dominate the match. Spears, whose right arm was heavily strapped, failed to win a single point from Williams's first serve in the opening set.
In the second set, Williams broke again in the opening game and held off a late rally from Spears to complete a comfortable win.
"In a competition where there are few Americans, I don't know why I played against one in the first game," Williams said. "I was happy with my serve as it got me through some difficult moments at break points."
In other first-round matches, defending champion No. 5 Eleni Daniilidou defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-4; Martina Muller beat local Han Sung-hee 6-1, 6-0; Ahsha Rolle made short work of Anne Keothavong 6-1, 6-1, and Mathilde Johansson defeated Junri Namigata 7-5, 6-2.
Tamarine Tanasugarn rallied from a set down to eliminate Casey Dellacqua 1-6, 6-3, 6-2; Yuan Meng defeated Marina Erakovic 6-4, 6-4; Catalina Castano beat Hseih Su-wei 6-3, 6-2; and Lee Ye-Ra was eliminated by Agnes Szavay 6-2, 6-3.
Williams, who won her sixth Grand Slam at Wimbledon this year, returned to the top 10 in the WTA rankings for the first time since April 2006.