Williams played with a veteran's poise in beating No. 59 Shaun Stafford 6-3, 6-4, showing off not only raw power, but also a deft touch with the occasional drop shot and lob.
The victory set up a match Wednesday night between Williams and top-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the French and U.S. Open champion this year.
"I don't have to watch her," Sanchez Vicario said as she left before Williams took the court to go to the Rolling Stones concert next door. "I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot of her."
In Williams' first tournament of any kind since she was 11, she didn't even bother to sit between changeovers. "Maybe she doesn't know she's allowed to sit," her coach, Rick Macci, said while watching her. "Maybe she thinks she needs a ticket."
There were more serious lapses in her game that were apparent to Macci. At one point, he wrote on his yellow pad, "Volley, Volley, Volley. Where is it?"
But he and Williams and her family could hardly be disappointed in so impressive a debut, even if there were only a few hundred fans in the Oakland Coliseum Arena. The media throng almost equaled the number of fans.
Pam Shriver, once a teen phenomenon herself, was impressed by Williams. "She has a lot of weapons," Shriver said. "In one match, it's hard to tell. She'll need patience and time, on and off the court. It's going to be great to have her on the tour, 14 or not. She'll just need tennis in the right doses for the next several years."
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