NEW YORK -- There were no tears for Jennifer Capriati this time, no raw emotions laid bare at the U.S. Open.

Instead, she talked about her tennis Monday, about a 6-4, 6-0 first-round victory over Emanuelle Gagliardi.

	She is seeded 15th, but Jennifer Capriati hopes to win the U.S. Open. She cruised to a first-round victory Monday.

It was a welcome change from the soap opera that climaxed last year with a dramatic cleansing in which Capriati pleaded to leave her past once and for all and not be reminded of it every time she set foot on the court.

"I think I've established my presence for good, hopefully," she said. "People still say, 'Glad to have you back.' It's not so much if I'm going to stay, but what am I going to do? It's just, I'm here. Yeah, I came back, seeded this year. It's definitely different. I like it better like this."

Capriati came into the Open seeded for the first time since 1993. At No. 15, she hardly seems to be a legitimate threat for the title in a field that includes Martina Hingis, the Williams sisters and Lindsay Davenport, but it's a step in the right direction.

And she is not frightened by the challenge of the big names.

"Of course I have thoughts of winning it," she said. "I mean that would be the ultimate for me. That is my goal, of course. I'm not going to be satisfied with winning a couple of rounds. I think I have a good chance so, of course, it's going to make my own expectations a little higher."

It wasn't all that long ago that Capriati was on the tennis scrap heap, her face on a police mug shot after drug charges and a seamy shoplifting affair. She was away from tournament tennis for two years, discarded in a sport that doesn't wait around for dropouts.

She battled her way back tournament by tournament, reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open in January and got to the round of 16 at Wimbledon berfore losing to Davenport.

That added up in the computer to a No. 15 at the Open, an important acknowledgment for Capriati.

"It means a lot," she said. "It just shows me the accomplishments that I've done, how I've improved on my tennis to get seeded.

"Must be doing something good, right?"

She drew the first match on the first day at the Open, usually a time when the tournament is stretching from its slumber and rubbing its eyes. For her, though, Louis Armstrong Stadium was packed. The fans embraced her the way they always have here.

"The first day of the tournament, playing in front of your home crowd, you want to play well and do well," she said.

Capriati started slowly, losing serve for 2-3 before winning four of five games for the first set. She then waited through a 1-hour, 45-minute rain delay before finishing off Gagliardi.

"Maybe I was a little nervous, and plus she played really well in the beginning," Capriati said. "It took me a while. I mean I really had to concentrate and focus on playing better myself.

"Then I got in a good rhythm there. Then it just started raining. It was OK for me. I guess for her, it just really threw her off maybe. It's hard to come back after that.

"You know I felt good all the way through."

Capriati has made some important changes in her game. Her father, Stefano, is coaching her again, coaxing her along the way he did at the beginning of her career.

"I'm feeling good about my tennis," she said.

And about herself, too.