Doubles win seals Kournikova return

Kournikova and Hingis return to winning ways

Anna Kournikova was back in action on the tennis court with a comfortable doubles win alongside Martina Hingis in the first round of the Acura Classic.

Kournikova and Hingis cruised to a comfortable 6-1 6-1 victory over Leizel Huber and Laura Montalvo at the La Costa Resort and Spa in California on Monday.

It was a promising return to competitive action for the Russian who has been out with a stress fracture in her left foot since February.

"I'm trying to come back and that means I'm feeling good, but it's my first tournament so you never know what to expect for my foot and the rest of my body," said 20-year-old Kournikova.

It's amazing that in our first match we were running in all the right directions

Anna Kournikova

"I'm trying to be really careful and take a lot of treatment. Everything in my body has changed a lot in the last five-and-a-half months and I wasn't able to do a lot of things I really wanted to.

"Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the shape I was before."

It was also Hingis' first match since her first round defeat by Virginia Ruano-Pascual at Wimbledon.

The world number one singles player said she had back problems at last month's competition and this event is clearly a way to ease herself back into playing.

"I did a lot of treatment and rehab and sometimes you're worried about pulling something in your first match back," said Hingis from Switzerland.

Old friends

Kournikova and Hingis have played together in the past, but split up at the end of last year after winning the 2000 Chase Championships.

Both decided to try out new partners with Hingis teaming up with Monica Seles at the 2001 Australian Open while Kournikova played alongside Barbara Schett.

After her singles final defeat to Jennifer Capriati, Hingis said she would stop playing doubles for the rest of the year.

But she and Kournikova practised together in Florida over the past two weeks and decided they missed playing as a pair.

"We're great together," said the Russian.

"We're good friends and a very good team. It's amazing that in our first match we were running in all the right directions. We understand each other."

Kremer dropped just three games

Elsewhere, Luxembourg's Anne Kremer inflicted a 6-2 6-1 defeat on Zimbabwe's Cara Black in the first round of the singles competition at the event.

Sandra Cacic also made it through to round two with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Kim-Anh Nguyen while Lilia Osterloh, Nicole Pratt and Chanda Rubin were also winners.

Osterloh beat France's Virginia Razzano 3-6 6-0 6-2, Pratt saw off New Zealand's Pavlina Nola 6-3 6-2 while Rubin routed Russia's Tatiana Panova 6-0 6-3.

Russia's Nadia Petrova was leading 5-2 Italy's Tathiana Garbin withdrew because of a rib injury.

Top seed Hingis, defending champion Venus Williams and Capriati have yet to play in the singles event.