NEW YORK, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova crashed out of the U.S. Open first round on Monday, bowing to Romania's Alexandra Dulgheru 7-6(3), 6-3.
Venus Williams, playing her first match in two months, powered her way to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over a travel-weary Vera Dolonts of Russia.
Williams hit six aces and 28 winners against the 91st-ranked Dolonts, who caught a 4 a.m. EDT flight from Moscow and didn't arrive at the tournament site until about four hours before her match.
She had flights canceled Saturday and Sunday because of Tropical Storm Irene, which caused New York airports to be closed.
Williams, whose seven Grand Slam titles include the 2000 and 2001 U.S. Opens, hadn't played on tour since a fourth-round loss at Wimbledon on June 27.
She sat out hard-court tuneup tournaments in recent weeks because of a virus.
Kvitova, fifth-seeded Czech, has been struggling on the hard-court circuit since her All-England Club triumph. Since becoming the youngest Wimbledon winner in seven years, the 21-year-old has posted a match record of just 2-3.
"I know that I'm still young and this is something new for me," Kvitova said Monday after the loss. "I need more experiences for sure."
Kvitova also has been hampered by a case of asthma that flares up in humid weather and an adductor injury sustained while running the table at Wimbledon, where she beat top-five players Victoria Azarenka and Sharapova, respectively, in the semifinals and final.
But she refused to blame her body for her struggles in the first round defeat.
"Everything is in the head," Kvitova said. "If you are thinking on the court negatively, it's bad."
Other women seeds fared into the second round on Monday with third seed Maria Sharapova rallying past British Heather Watson 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, second seed Vera Zvonareva romping off Franch qualifier Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-3, 6-0.
The 19-year-old Watson, the U.S. Open junior singles champion two years ago, took advantage of some erratic play from the Russian and looked poised for an upset at 5-5 in the second set before Sharapova raised her game.
Hitting with added ferocity, the 2006 champion made her 104th-ranked opponent race from side-to-side and eventually wore her out in two hours 34 minutes, setting up second round match against Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus.
12th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland upset her younger sister Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-3. Australia's Samantha Stosur, ninth seed, took just an hour to dispatch Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson in 6-2, 6-3. China's Peng Shuai, seeded 13, also advanced in straight sets of 6-3, 6-4 over US player Varvara Lepchenko.
2010 U.S. Open quarterfinalist Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova, 14th seed, beat China's Zhang Shuai also in 6-3, 6-4.
24th-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia edged off Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei in 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
25th-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia managed to defeat her compatriot Ekaterina Makarova 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(3).
