New York ? There was Serena Williams, unseeded but overpowering her opponent.

There was Martina Hingis, down a set but coming back by using all of her guile and working every angle on court, including smacking one volley left-handed.

And there was Marat Safin, winning but muttering to himself, smashing a racket, and – as only he can – challenging the validity of an instant-replay ruling.

It was a day of many happy returns at the U.S. Open on Wednesday, when those three past champions managed to make a bit of news merely by showing up. For Williams, it was her first Grand Slam match since January; Hingis was playing at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2002; Safin hadn’t won a match here since that year.

“It’s good to be back,” said Hingis, who beat Peng Shuai of China, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. “First of all, the energy of New York itself, it’s already great. And then walking on to the stadium, it was amazing. I was nervous in the beginning.”

The most anticipated return of all, though, might simply have been the tennis itself. Thanks to continuous light rain and mist, Tuesday was the first day at the U.S. Open without a completed match in 19 years, and that meant Wednesday’s schedule read like a “Who’s Who” of the sport.

Two-time defending champion Roger Federer won in straight sets, as did his chief rival, No. 2 Rafael Nadal, 2003 Open champion Andy Roddick, 2001 Open champion Lleyton Hewitt, and the top-seeded American, No. 5 James Blake, who needed six match points to get through.

Serena Williams returns a shot to Lourdes Dominguez Lino. Williams won, 6-1, 6-2, at the U.S. Open on Wednesday in New York.

Blake is after his first Grand Slam title, and two players chasing their second played under the lights at night. Maria Sharapova compiled 33 winners to only 13 unforced errors and breezed to a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Michaella Krajicek, the younger sister of 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek. That was followed by Roddick’s 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-3 win over Kristian Pless of Denmark in Wednesday’s only second-round match.

Even with so many matches across the grounds, the upsets were quite limited, with the biggest probably 2004 French Open champion Anastasia Myskina’s 6-4, 6-2 loss to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Williams missed this year’s French Open and Wimbledon – six months in all – because of a left knee injury, so she needed a wild card to get into a tournament she won in 1999 and 2002. But, perhaps thanks to a week with esteemed coach Nick Bollettieri, Williams had no trouble at all Wednesday, beating Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain, 6-1, 6-2.