JOIN USClijsters back with a bang
The Belgian, playing in just her third tournament following a two-year break during which she gave birth to her first child, overpowered the world number 79 in just 58 minutes.
Clijsters, the 2005 champion but a wildcard entry this year, won the first seven points and romped through the opening set in just 27 minutes.
Kutuzova could not cope with the Clijsters groundstrokes and the 26-year-old will play either 14th seed Marion Bartoli of France or Paraguay's Rossana De Los Rios.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer opened his bid for a sixth successive US Open title by overwhelming teenage wildcard Devin Britton 6-1, 6-3, 7-5 in a first-round match.
Federer needed only 18 minutes to win the first set against Britton, an 18-year-old American who won the 2009 NCAA singles title as a freshman and is ranked number 1,370 in the world.
Britton settled down in the final two sets but could not cope with the punishing groundstrokes from the top-seeded Federer, who is seeking a record 16th grand slam crown. The 28-year-old Federer broke Britton's serve to close out the one hour, 28-minute match.
Nadal confident
Two months on the sidelines nursing tendinitis in both knees will not derail Rafael Nadal's bid for the only grand slam to elude him, the Spanish world number three said.
"I am not scared," the 23-year-old Mallorcan told ‘Spain's El Pais’ daily. "I was out for two months and then (this month) I got to the quarterfinals at the Montreal Masters and the semis at the Cincinnati Masters.
"I know that here (at the US Open) a quarterfinal or a semi would be a very good result but I am coming to win," added the six-times grand slam winner.
"When I retire nobody will remember if I get to quarters or semis." Australian Open champion Nadal said his first-round match against Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who is making his return after a ban for inadvertently taking cocaine, could be very difficult.
First round results (prefix denotes seeding: Women’s singles: 26-Francesca Schiavone (Ita) bt Yvonne Meusburger (Aus) 6-1, 6-2; Maria Kirilenko (Rus) bt Mariya Koryttseva (Ukr) 6-2, 6-1; Kim Clijsters (Bel) bt Viktoriya Kutuzova (Ukr) 6-1, 6-1; 8-Victoria Azarenka (Bela) bt Alexandra Dulgheru (Rom) 6-1, 6-1; 12-Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) bt Patricia Mayr (Aus) 6-1, 6-2; Vania King (US) bt Anastasiya Yakimova (Bela) 2-1 (Yakimova retired).
Comeback mum in the first round of the