Williams, Hingis power through in Scottsdale

Serena Williams and Martina Hingis made winning returns to the WTA Tour in the second round of the $585,000 Scottsdale Classic on Wednesday.

Third seed Williams gave an error-strewn performance but still beat Alina Jidkova of Russia 6-3 6-3 while second seed Hingis shrugged off three weeks of inactivity to power past Frenchwoman Stephanie Foretz 6-2 6-4 earlier in the day.

World No. 9 Williams has been sidelined since straining ligaments in her left ankle in the semifinals of the Adidas International in Sydney on January 11.

Although the American looked rusty, she relied on her unrelenting groundstrokes and big serves to sweep past the 25-year-old Russian qualifier, who reached the semifinals in Memphis last week.

"I didn't play good tonight at all," said Williams despite rifling nine aces at speeds as high as 115-mph in the 62-minute match.

"If I was to rate my game with 10 being the highest, I'd give myself about a two.

"I wasn't focused out there, I made so many errors. I should have been able to hit more aces. But I'm going to work on some things on my off day tomorrow."

Hingis seemed much more pleased with her performance against Foretz.

"I felt very focused, very concentrated," said the Swiss former world number one.

"I had to do the best (I could) out of what possibilities were out there in my first match. Overall I was pretty happy about it."

Hingis has already captured two singles titles in 2002 and was desperately unlucky to lose a nerve-jangling Australian Open final to Jennifer Capriati last month.

After winning the Pan Pacific title in Tokyo earlier this month, the five-times grand slam champion decided it was time for an early-season rest.

DANGEROUS PLAYER

She took three weeks off but there was no evidence of a lack of match practice when she took to the court against Foretz, who had won four matches, including three to get into the main draw here.

"She's a very dangerous player," Hingis said after her 63-minute victory.

"Once you have already won four matches, you probably have a little confidence and feel good coming into the tournament to play a first round match. They have nothing to lose. And, not having played in three weeks, I was a little rusty, and had to get going again."

Williams, sporting long platinum braids and gold tennis shoes, was asked if she had noticed any difference since her elder sister Venus became world No. 1 on Monday.

Even though conflicting schedules have caused them to miss each other, Serena guaranteed that nothing had changed.

"She's the same person she was before," said Serena. "Only good thing is that because she's No. 1, I get more points if I beat her.

"Honestly, it's not like because she's No. 1 she's going to change like, 'Go get my shoes', it's not like that at all.

"I talk to her all the time on the phone but I haven't asked her how she feels about being No. 1. I'm sure it must be a good feeling."

Although Williams wasn't feeling overjoyed about her game, she used a lone service break in the third game and a booming 115-mph serve at set point to take the opener.

In the second set, Williams began to hit out more, resulting in more unforced errors from the American. After going 2-1 up with a service break in the third game, the Russian returned the favour three games later to make it 3-3, but Williams got the break back in the next game.

Trailing 5-3, Jidkova fell behind 15-40 on serve before Williams drew her to the net and hit a close-in forehand pass to end the match.

In other second round tussles, No. 8 seed Deja Bedanova of the Czech Republic beat Croatia's Silvija Talaja 6-2, 6-3 while unseeded Australian Nicole Pratt overcame Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-2, 6-1.