Mason, OH (My Sportsbook) - Kim Clijsters returned to competitive tennis and immediately got into the win column with a relatively easy 6-4, 6-3 decision over France's Marion Bartoli in the first round at the $2 million Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open.

This marked the first WTA Tour match for Clijsters, a former world No.1 player, since the spring of 2007. The now 26-year-old star married basketball player Brian Lynch and gave birth to a daughter since then, as she retired to start a family and become injury-free.

Clijsters, who captured her lone major title at the 2005 U.S. Open, owns 34 singles titles and was ranked No. 1 for a total of 19 weeks in her prime.

It took her just over one hour and 22 minutes to claim the victory on the hardcourts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

Meanwhile, ninth-seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka got past Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 7-6 (7-2). Azarenka was a big winner at the so-called "Fifth Slam" in Miami earlier this season. No. 11 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia came back to beat American qualifier Melanie Oudin 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Big-serving German Anna-Lena Groenefeld posted an upset by dousing 16th-seeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 on Day 1, while Canadian crowd favorite Aleksandra Wozniak blew past Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-3.

Swiss Patty Schnyder shut down Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-4, 6-0, while Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko blew past Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-2, 6-2 to set-up a second-rounder with former world No. 1 star Serena Williams.

Additional opening-round wins came for the likes of Czech Lucie Safarova, Belarusian Olga Govortsova, Hungarian Melinda Czink and Italian Roberta Vinci, who will meet top-ranked Russian Dinara Safina in the round of 32. Russia's Anna Chakvetadze made it into the second round with a 7-5, 6-3 win over countrywoman Elena Vesnina.

The world's best are here this week, including Safina, the Wimbledon, Australian Open and U.S. Open champion Serena and Wimbledon runner-up Venus Williams. Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva, U.S. Open runner-up Jelena Jankovic and French Open titlist Svetlana Kuznetsova are also in the powerful field. This week's top eight seeds also received first-round byes.

Russian Nadia Petrova, seeded 10th this week, beat France's Nathalie Dechy in last year's final here.

The 2009 Cincy champ will collect $350,000.