HONG KONG — Venus Williams showed no signs of rustiness after a four-week break, defeating No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-2, 6-2 Thursday at an exhibition tournament ahead of the Australian Open.

"I've always been a good player off the jump," Williams said. "That's kind of always been the way I've played throughout my career. I never played a lot of big warm-up events. Coming to tournaments, I've always been able to play well when I entered."

Williams' win tied Team Americas with Team Europe at 1-1. Argentina's Gisela Dulko will play Hungary's Agnes Szavay later Thursday. The winner will play Team Russia.

The team-format event in Hong Kong is a tuneup for the Australian Open, which starts Jan. 19 in Melbourne.

Williams served and hit powerfully, while Jankovic appeared sluggish, with serves lacking pace and erratic groundstrokes.

Jankovic said she is usually a slow starter and adjusting to a bulkier body following an offseason fitness program.

"I need more time to adjust, to get my rhythm and feel the court, feel the ball," Jankovic said. "You could see, I was very, very slow out there. My reactions were quite slow."

Williams also beat Jankovic in the semifinals of the season-ending WTA Championships in Doha, Qatar, on her way to winning the title.

The American broke in the first and third games to go up 4-0 in the first set. Jankovic squandered four break points in the sixth game to fall 5-1 behind, and Williams served two aces and hit a down-the-line forehand winner to close out the set.

Jankovic dropped serve in the third game of the second set to trail 2-1. She missed a forehand in the seventh game to give Williams a second break and a 5-2 lead. Williams served an ace and two other serves forced errors in the next game to clinch victory.