Williams back in top form

Venus Williams, the former world No1, returned to competitive tennis with a convincing 6-4, 6-4 win over Russian qualifier Alina Jidkova in the first round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

Williams, playing her first match since losing to fellow American Lindsay Davenport in the fourth round of last month's US Open, took just 74 minutes to beat Jidkova and will now face another Russian, Vera Douchevina.

Elena Dementieva gave local fans something to shout about by breezing to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.

Two more Russians to go through were Vera Zvonareva, who swept aside France's Nathalie Dechy 6-0, 6-2, and Nadia Petrova, who had to work harder for a 7-5, 6-4 win over Argentina's Paola Suarez.

Meanwhile, double Olympic champion Nicolas Massu battled for nearly three hours before overcoming Slovak qualifier Karol Kucera 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 to claim his first victory in four attempts at the Vienna Trophy.

After winning both the singles and doubles titles in Athens, Massu said he was finding it difficult to concentrate

"I'm going to remember the Olympics all my life but I must stop thinking about it and think more about my next match," he said. "I want to finish in the top 10 this year."

Top seed David Nalbandian, of Argentina, beat Italian Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-3.