Amelie Mauresmo, chasing the world number one ranking, and Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova signalled their intentions at the WTA Tour Championships on Thursday with sparkling straight-set victories. Sharapova, the 17-year-old Russian who shot to global prominence with her triumph at the All-England Club, defeated another young Russian Grand Slam champion - US Open titlist Svetlana Kuznetsova - 6-1, 6-4 in her opening match of the three million-dollar season finale.
Mauresmo, who in September became the first French tennis player to claim the world number one ranking, routed Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-0 in her first round-robin match.
Six-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams was less comfortable, but she won another close one, beating Russian Elena Dementieva 7-6 (7/3), 7-5.
The American had rallied from a set and two service breaks down to defeat Russian French Open champion Anastasia Myskina on Wednesday.
Williams will finish off round-robin play on Saturday against Lindsay Davenport, who reclaimed the world number one ranking from Mauresmo.
If Mauresmo wins this week, she has a chance of grabbing the year-end number one spot, and her victory over Zvonareva was an impressive start.
Mauresmo continued the sizzling form that has seen her win two titles in the past two weeks, taking her total for the year to five, with four more runner-up finishes to boot.
Mauresmo said her brief ascension to the tennis summit had only made things easier for her on court.
Mauresmo is also trying to improve this week on her runner-up finish to Belgian Kim Clijsters in the Championships last year.
Sharapova is in the tournament for the first time, and was delighting in the atmosphere of the Staples Center, home of the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Lakers.
Sharapova showed no sign of the shoulder strain that prompted her to withdraw from a semi-final match against Mauresmo in Philadelphia.
She claimed her first victory over her 19-year-old compatriot in three career meetings, her two losses to Kuznetsova coming at Wimbledon in 2003 and in Beijing in September.
Sharapova said the Kuznetsova she played in China, less than a month after the US Open, seemed "unstoppable."
But that wasn't the case Thursday as Sharapova bombarded Kuznetsova with 23 winners.
"She was at the top of her game today," Kuznetsova said. "She was hitting the ball very hard. I had to find a different style, and I didn't do this."
Kuznetsova had opened round-robin play with a win over Zvonareva on Wednesday. She next faces a potential make-or-break group match against Mauresmo on Friday.
Mauresmo has won all three of their meetings, all this year and including three-set quarter-final triumphs in Berlin and at the Athens Olympics.
In Friday's other matches, Davenport plays Myskina and Sharapova takes on Zvonareva.
Davenport has won four of five career meetings with Myskina, but the Russian won their last encounter in the semi-finals at Moscow in October.