SAN DIEGO, California Anna Kournikova marked her return to competitive action by partnering Martina Hingis to a 6-1 6-1 win over Leizel Huber and Laura Montalvo in the first round of the doubles at the Acura Classic on Monday.

"I'm trying to come back and that means I'm feeling good, but it's my first tournament so you never know what to expect for my foot and the rest of my body," said the Russian, who has been out since February recovering from a stress fracture in her left foot.

"I'm trying to be really careful and take a lot of treatment. Everything in my body has changed a lot in the last five-and-a-half months and I wasn't able to do a lot of things I really wanted to. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the shape I was before."

Looking trim and moving gracefully, Kournikova showed no lingering effects from the injury against South African Huber and Argentine Montalvo, Reuters reported.

While she didn't appear to have gained any extra power on her relatively weak serve during her time off, she was often brilliant at the net and returned serve with variety and authority.

"I was really surprised," said the 20-year-old. "I thought I wouldn't get too much rhythm out there but I did because I was practising with martina before the tournament. I felt better than I thought I would."

It was Hingis's first match since she was beaten in the first round of Wimbledon by Virginia Ruano-Pascual.

Hingis was hindered by a bad back at Wimbledon. "I did a lot of treatment and rehab and sometimes you're worried about pulling something in your first match back," said the world's number one singles player.

Hingis, who said that it took her a couple of weeks to recover from her back problem, added: "I've had a lot of good practices and I just need to take it slowly".