Henin through but lacks 'rhythm'
Top seed Justine Henin made short work of her opening match at the US Open as play got under way in New York.
Henin, who was beaten in last year's women's singles final by Maria Sharapova, needed just 62 minutes on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court to defeat German qualifier Julia Goerges 6-0 6-3.
Despite the scoreline it was a far from fluent performance from the French Open champion with the Belgian managing only a 44% first service rate and committing seven double faults. But when Henin did make her first serves, she was difficult to contain and Goerges folded with 32 unforced errors.
"I don't have a lot of things to say about that match because there wasn't a lot of rhythm," Henin said. "She was serving pretty hard, pretty good, but did a lot of mistakes."
Henin has been nursing an inflamed right shoulder which has restricted her to just one tournament start since Wimbledon. Worryingly for her rivals, the only one she played in, in Toronto earlier this month, she won, although she admitted the problem was still a concern.
"I just did a good job. Generally, it's been positive but I didn't serve that well. "I was a bit concerned the last few days with my shoulder. It's getting better but still a little scary. But no, I'm glad to win that way."
