Thursday, July 20 2006 14:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Cincinnati (Ohio) : Serena Williams is taking inspiration from Andre Agassi and Monica Seles as she continues the long, hard road back to the top of women's tennis.

Injury-hit Williams, the former world number one and seven-time Grand Slam winner, played her first match in six months on Tuesday and looked like she had never been away as she brushed aside second seed Anastasia Myskina 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the Cincinnati Open.

"I can only go up from here. I can't really go much further down," said Williams, whose six-month absence was caused by a knee injury which has seen her world ranking plummet to 139.

"I look at people like Andre Agassi and Monica Seles, and of course what they did. I was always amazed at how Monica came back after so long and did so well. I try to keep that as an inspiration. He who doubts loses," she said.

The hardcourt matchup of Grand Slam winners was no contest.

Williams showed virtually no rust, scoring service breaks in each set to make quick work of Myskina, the 2004 French Open champion.

Williams, whose last tournament was the Australian Open in January, missed the entire claycourt and grasscourt seasons, including the French Open and Wimbledon.

She is trying to develop a rhythm leading up to the US Open, which she has won twice. "It was important to get a quick start," she said.

"I haven't had stellar results the last six months, so I probably caught her by surprise.

From my perspective, my unforced errors were much lower than usual," she said.

"Anastasia often plays really well, so going into the match I knew my errors had to be very low. There's definitely some rust, but mentally I did better than expected," she said.

Myskina paid tribute to her opponent.

"Serena played great," said the Russian who reached the Eastbourne final and the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

"She stepped forward and just attacked. I was down the whole match; it was going by so quickly and I was under a lot of pressure. I didn't play my best, but it was tough; we didn't see her in six months, I didn't know what to expect," she said.