World No. 1 Serena Williams, third-seeded Petra Kvitova and seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard cruises through to the second round after easily defeating their opponents at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows on Wednesday.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion Williams used her powerful serves to force fellow American Taylor Townsend at bay and went to the net seven times to break the teen four times to easily win the match 6-3 6-1.

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The 32-year-old Williams only produced eight unforced errors and delivered 16 winners in a match that lasted 55 mins.

"There's always a little nerves going into the first round, especially as defending champion," said Williams.

Williams is set to face another American in the second round, 25-year-old Vania King.

Wimbledon champion Kvitova also had an easy time with her opponent Kristina Mladenovic as she delivered seven service aces and 15 winners to wrap up the game 6-1 6-0 in 54 minutes.

"I'm very happy," Kvitova said. "First round is always nerves. I was just glad how played today."

The 24-year-old Kvitova will go up against fellow Czech Petra Cetkovska in the next round.

Canadian Bouchard was in form with her match against Olga Govortsova of Belarus. She broke Govortsova four times and took 59 minutes to seal a victory 6-2 6-1.

"Definitely never easy in the first round of a Grand Slam," Bouchard said. "I want to kind of get on a roll and keep the momentum going."

The 20-year-old Bouchard's next opponent is Romanian Sorana Cirstea.

While all three got through their matches easily, last year's runner-up Victoria Azarenka had a tough time with Misaki Doi of Japan.

The 16^th seed Azarenka dropped the first set in a tie but won the next two sets 6(3)-7(7) 6-4 6-1.

Azarenka was asked about how she was feeling after not being able to compete in Cincinnati due to a knee injury.

"I felt good. I felt throughout the three sets I was pretty consistent with movement and everything. So it was all good," said Azarenka.

She now faces American Christina McHale in the next round.

Tagsserena williams, Victoria Azarenka