Beijing - Venus Williams had to recover from 4-0 down in the second set before getting past Russian Vera Dushevina on Saturday 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) for an opening-day win at the China Open. The American third seed, playing for the first time since a fourth-round US Open loss nearly a month ago, struggled at the Olympic tennis centre where she won gold a year ago with her sister Venus at the Beijing Games.
Williams did recover with a run of five straight games to finally emerge with the victory and leave the 47th-ranked Duchevina standing 0-4 in the series after also losing to the American in the Open first round in August.
Williams stands third in the tournament pecking order behind number one Russian Dinara Safina and sister Serena Williams.
Williams next faces Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a 7-5, 6-1 winner over Austrian Sybille Bammer.
Australian Samantha Stosur became the first seed to fall, failing to hold off Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Italian tenth seed Flavia Pennetta advanced without difficulty over China's Han Xinyun 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 into the second round.
Ailing and disillusioned former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic withdrew before the start with bronchial illness which will end her season while fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic, who had to quit Saturday in a Tokyo final against Maria Sharapova, is looking doubtful with a wrist injury.
The men's half of the field starts on Monday, with Rafael Nadal the top seed after being pronounced fit from his recent abdominal muscle strain and missing this week's Thailand Open.
