Venus Williams off to fast start

SAN DIEGO, July 31 (UPI) -- Venus Williams crushed Anastassia Rodionova Monday in the first round of the $1.34 million Acura Classic in San Diego.

Williams, seeded 10th in her first outing since winning her fourth Wimbledon title and sixth Grand Slam event overall, eliminated the unseeded Russian 6-3, 6-0.

Ninth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva defeated Colombian wild card Catalina Castano 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, while 11th-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland ousted American Jamea Jackson 6-2, 6-1.

Thirteenth-seeded Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin beat Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-1, 2-6, 6-2, and 14th-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko outlasted Chinese Shuai Peng 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Other first-round winners were American Vania King, Russians Elena Bovina and Maria Kirilenko, Japanese Aiko Nakamura, German Angelique Kerber, Greek Eleni Daniilidou, Frenchwoman Camille Pin, Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn, Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands and Anne Kremer of Luxembourg.

The top seed this week, Russian superstar Maria Sharapova, beat Belgian Kim Clijsters in last year's title match here. The former world No. 1, who also is the reigning U.S. Open champ and Aussie Open runner-up, has a first-round bye.