NEW YORK -- For the first match in defense of her U.S. Open championship, Venus Williams drew Lenka Dlhopolcova, a player whose name she said she couldn't pronounce.

That's OK. Elocution doesn't count at the Open. String the vowels and consonants in any order and it still comes down to serves and returns, aces and break points, the nuts and bolts of the game. In the end, Williams had the tennis tools necessary to deal with the 17-year-old who was making her Grand Slam debut on Tuesday.

The result was a 6-2, 6-3 rubout, painless for all concerned, which was fine with Williams.

"It was good," she said. "I don't want any hard matches, especially since my week last week. That was a rough week for me. I like to start a little slower this week. There were more unforced errors than I would like, but it felt good."

Her title at New Haven last week gave Williams a nine-match winning streak coming into the Open. She was never in any danger against Dlhopolcova, even with the 32 errors and a first-serve percentage of just 52 percent. Williams hit 14 winners and a couple of aces and was on cruise control.

There was brief drama in Jennifer Capriati's night match when a grease fire at a concession stand sent smoke billowing through an upper-deck stadium entrance. Capriati, seeded second, remained focused on tennis and beat Amanda Hopmans 6-2, 6-1.

"The stadium started to get really smoky," Capriati said. "It was just weird."

No fans were evacuated and no one was hurt.

Earlier, French Open finalist Kim Clijsters, her right thigh heavily taped, defeated Pavlina Nola 6-1, 6-1 to move easily into the second round.

On another humid day at the National Tennis Center, the fifth-seeded Clijsters advanced with Sandrine Testud, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Nina Dubbers.

Clijsters pulled out of a tuneup match last week in New Haven, Conn., because of the injury to her right quad muscle.

"I've taken a lot of treatment and ice," she said. "It's better than the day after it happened in New Haven. I'm playing with it tightly taped so I don't pull a muscle.

"It's a bit weird. I've never played taped like this. It's not easy. It restricts movement a little. It's not going to get better in the next two days. It's hard to ignore. I've got to keep playing and treating it."

Testud, seeded No. 18, is coming off losses to Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles and Serena Williams in her past three tournaments. She joined those three in the second round, after they advanced on Monday.

American Chanda Rubin, sapped by the 85-degree sunshine, vomited on court midway through the third set but continued and beat Jana Kandarr 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Venus Williams complimented her young opponent.

"I hadn't seen her," Williams said. "She's a good player, though, a very good player. She tried hard even when she was down 5-2."

For the teenager from Slovakia, it was a good experience, a tentative first step into tennis' big leagues where players like the Williams sisters, Martina Hingis, Davenport, Capriati and the others can make every week an adventure.

She even had one big moment. With Williams serving for the match, the teenager broke her and then began urging the fans to cheer her underdog effort. Williams put an end to that in a hurry, breaking right back to finish the match.

It was an impressive statement by the youngster, though. If she was feeling any Center Court pressure, it didn't show.

"I think pressure is really how you process it," Williams said. "It's not easy a lot of time, especially when you're coming through the ranks. You just have to challenge yourself to step up and move forward to compete. Once you can break it down in your mind, make it that simple, it is quite easy."

Easier, perhaps, than pronouncing Dlhopolcova.