Australian Open champion Serena Williams worked harder than expected but came away with a 6-3 7-5 victory over unseeded Angelique Kerber of Germany in the first round of the US Open Monday.
The eighth-seeded Williams, an eight-times Grand Slam winner, needed 77 minutes to dispatch the 19-year-old Kerber.
"I didn't play well at all, at all," said 25-year-old Williams, who has been bothered by a sore left thumb and was playing in her first match since losing in the Wimbledon quarter-finals to Justine Henin.
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