Maria Sharapova, former world number one, made a successful return to the grand slam arena, on Monday as she dumped second-ranked Simona Helep with a 6-4 4-6 6-3 victory over the Romanian. The 30-year-old Russian star, playing in her first grand slam since Australia open 2016, she delivered an absorbing contest, lasting almost three hours as she hit 60 winners and 54 unforced errors, compared to Halep's return of 15 and 14.
It was an eventful first day at Flushing Meadows as some of the seeded players departed, British seventh seed Konta fell to a shock loss to Aleksandra Krunic, while fellow seeds Kiki Bertens, Ana Konjuh and Lauren Davis also said goodbye.
Playing her first slam match since the 2016 Australian Open, former world number one Sharapova upstaged second seed Simona Halep in three sets on Monday. US Open favourite and Wimbledon champion Muguruza barely raised a sweat in her first-round victory against Varvara Lepchenko.
Seeds Caroline Wozniacki, Venus Williams, Dominika Cibulkova, Petra Kvitova, Anastasija Sevastova, Caroline Garcia, Peng Shuai, Magdalena Rybarikova, Julia Goerges and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni had no such trouble reaching the next round.
The packed stands at flushing meadows are poised for tough matches, entertainment, as players rackets slice the warm air of New York, amassing points, breaking records and writing their names in the annals of the game.
