Top seed Karolina Pliskova got off to a roaring start in her bid for a maiden Grand Slam title at the US Open on Monday, downing first-round opponent Anhelina Kalinina 6-4, 6-0 to kick off action in Arthur Ashe Stadium here.

“I think my game was quite good for a first round,” said Pliskova, the world No. 3, who played in front of empty stands with crowd noise piped in as the tournament is being held without fans due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Former champion Angelique Kerber, seeded 17th, returned to action after seven months and beat Australian Ajla Tomljanovic 6-4, 6-4. The German overcame a shaky start on serve and got better as the 88-minute match at Louis Armstrong Stadium wore on.

Sixth seed Petra Kvitova had an easy first round against Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania, sweeping aside the unseeded player 6-2, 6-3.

“It’s not easy to play your first match after such a long time and it was my first match after Australia (Open) so I’m really happy how I played,” said Kerber. “It’s always a little bit different to play points, and especially a match, than playing just practice points so I am happy how I did the transition to the match court.”

Kerber was sidelined with a leg injury before the Covid-19 outbreak forced a shutdown of global tennis in March and did not compete in last week’s warm-up event played on the site of the US Open.

But despite the lack of recent competitive action, the 32-year-old former world No.1 needed only a handful of games to shake off the rust and never looked back as she improved her career record against Tomljanovic to 2-0.