New York ? Former champion Lindsay Davenport, seeded fourth and playing her first Grand Slam match of the year, beat Eva Dyrberg 6-2, 6-1, Monday at the U.S. Open.

Coming back from knee surgery, Davenport needed 43 minutes to win. She had three aces and 23 winners.

“I’ve been waiting to play a Grand Slam all year long. It was a long wait,” said Davenport, who finished 2001 ranked No. 1 but was sidelined from November until last month. “I just was so excited to get it going.”

Men’s winners included two-time major champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov, French Open winner Albert Costa, No. 13 Roger Federer, No. 25 James Blake, and Andre Agassi.

Anna Kournikova was booed by fans when she left the court after committing 40 unforced errors in a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Angelique Widjaja of Indonesia.

“It was a very bad match for me,” Kournikova said. “I was just not in the match for some reason.”

Corina Morariu returned to Grand Slam action less than 112 years after starting treatment for leukemia and did what she could to keep top-seeded Serena Williams off-balance before falling 6-2, 6-3.

“I didn’t think that I’d ever be back here,” a teary Morariu said. “There are days when you feel so bad, and things get so difficult, that you don’t think you’ll be able to do the things you used to.”

“It takes a lot of courage and character to do what she’s done,” said Williams, who called Morariu a few times during her recovery.