Anna Kournikova smiles after her first-round 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Japan's Saori Obata at the Rogers AT&T Cup in Montreal on Monday. Photo: Marcos Townsend/CP

Montreal — Anna Kournikova, drawing as much notice for her tennis as her looks of late, routed Saori Obata of Japan 6-3, 6-1 on a muggy opening day of the $1.224-million (U.S.) Rogers AT&T Cup Monday.

A large crowd, but not a sellout, turned out to du Maurier Stadium to see the Kournikova stay on a hot streak that advanced her to the quarter-finals and semi-finals of her past two tournaments in California.

"I definitely felt very good," said Kournikova, who missed most of last season, including the Rogers in Toronto, with a stress fracture in her left foot. "These courts are really soft, they don't feel like hard courts at all.

"They're kinda squishy. But I was hitting the ball very well. I was going for my shots. I was pretty confident."

After a slow start in which she double faulted three times while losing her service in the opening game, Kournikova recovered to oust Obata, a qualifier, in only 45 minutes.

It's not that Kournikova has lost the pin-up appeal she is best known for. She turned up in a pale blue and white outfit that revealed some midriff and drew a few whistles when she went onto the court.

"I don't really have a glamour life," she protested afterward. "I don't go to parties and stuff.

"I just do what I have to do with the people [sponsors] I work with — and that's very limited — and the rest of the time is spent on the most important thing, my tennis."

However, she recently did a photo spread for the men's magazine FHM which she said was "fun, but it only took a few hours."

The top eight seeds, who have byes to the second round, begin play Tuesday with first seed and defending champion Serena Williams taking on Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia.

It was not a happy day for the Canadian contingent and for Montreal-born Mary Pierce of France, the object of some unwanted controversy.

Henrieta Nagyova, a qualifier from Slovakia, beat Pierce 7-6 (9-7), 6-7 (4-7), 7-5 in a marathon match on centre court that took 2 hours 50 minutes. Both players turned down an offer from officials for a 10-minute break to cool off after the middle set.

Tenth-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy survived a second-set scare to beat Drake, Canada's top-ranked woman player at No. 108 in the world, by 6-2, 7-5.

And Jana Nejedly of Vancouver was bounced 6-1, 6-0 by qualifier Sarah Taylor of the United States in an evening match, ending Canada's presence in the singles draw after one round for a second successive year.

Pierce, the 2000 French Open champion, was given a wild-card entry to help her come back after missing nearly all of last season with a spinal injury. She said Monday's heat did not bother her.

"I live in [Sarasota] Florida and it's a lot more hot and humid down there. I just didn't play well and she did. I don't know why. I wasn't moving well. Everything was missing today."

Tennis Canada usually reserves its wild cards for its own players and giving one to Pierce left two for Canadians — Drake and Nejedly.

"I appreciate it very much,' said Pierce, 27, a former world No. 3 now ranked 49th. "I'd have liked to put it to better use.

"It's a great tournament, I was born in Montreal and I've done well here in the past, so it means a lot to me."

Drake didn't object — to a point.

"It's not that they gave a wild card to Mary Pierce because they've given them to top players before, but I'd have had a problem if they given away another one," Drake said.

"We don't have that many events in Canada so Canadians should be given the opportunity to compete and improve their rankings."

Marie-Eve Pelletier of Repentigny, Que., was in line for the wild card that was given to Pierce.

"That Pierce lost makes it even more frustrating," Pelletier said. "She got my wild card. It wasn't necessarily the best choice because they thought she would draw crowds and she only lasted one day."

To make it worse for the home side, Pelletier and partner Renata Kolbovic of Vancouver were beaten 6-2, 6-4 in doubles by the seventh-seeded team of Els Callens of Belgium and Roberta Vinci of Italy.

One Canadian doubles team remains. Sonja Jeyaseelan and Vanessa Webb of Toronto play Laura Montalvo of Argentina and Elena Tatarkova of Ukraine tonight.