A few hours after the unveiling of a statue here to honour the great Althea Gibson – who won Wimbledon in 1957 and partnered Britain’s Angela Buxton to win two slam doubles titles – the American’s spiritual heir, Venus Williams, progressed to the second round of the US Open in a blistering hour and six minutes.

Route 66 for Williams – a two-times winner here at the turn of the millennium who turns 40 next summer and shows no signs of retiring – was a 6-1, 6-0 destruction of China’s Zheng Saisai on the court named after Louis Armstrong, who lived nearby. It is the best she has played in a little while. Williams next plays the Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska, who beat Jo Konta two weeks ago in Montreal.

US Open 2019: Djokovic in action, Konta and Barty win on day one – live! Read more

Konta was the first of the small British contingent to successfully negotiate the first round on a fresh, crisp Monday, with the actor Tom Hiddleston watching as a guest in her box as she overcame a mid-match dip to beat the accomplished Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 in just over two hours in front of hundreds of noisy British fans among the 2,800 who squeezed into the seats on Court 17.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Johanna Konta in action Photograph: Michael Owens/AP

Billie Jean King earlier compared Venus to the tall, athletic Gibson, a pioneer for African-American women across sports in the ’50s, whose friendship with Buxton lasted until the former’s death at 76 in 2003. Buxton, who commutes between Manchester and Florida, helped raise more than a million dollars to lift her friend out of penury shortly before she died.

Buxton, whose capacity for straight-talking has not diminished throughout her 85 years, observed that the Gibson statue “doesn’t resemble her at all” then took a dig at the All England Club for never giving her life membership because, she maintains, she is Jewish. It is a subject the club rarely discusses.

“They haven’t given me membership, although they say they have,” she told the Guardian after the unveiling of the statue. “And I say, ‘What happened?’ They said, ’You refused it.’ I said, ‘I don’t refuse it now. So send it along.’ They said, ‘Oh, no, no, no, we can’t do that.’ I said, ‘Why is that? They said, ’You’ve gone to the end of the queue now.’

“This was 1980. It is a laugh – if you can see the funny side of it.”

The British No 1 and 16th seed Konta met Hiddleston in New York three days ago. “He turns out to be a big tennis fan, so I invited him down and he brought some of his co-stars [in Betrayal, which is playing on Broadway],” she said. “I had some of my friends there as well, so I had a lot of great support in the box.”

She was coy about where she and her group had bumped into Hiddleston because, she said: “Once I say, you guys will figure it out and I don’t want to encroach on his privacy. I’m sorry.” No betrayal there, then.

Konta nevertheless appreciated the support of Hiddleston and the rest of the British fans, as Kasatkina, who had won their previous two matches, rallied in the second set before some wretched serving let her down. Her last four strokes of the match contributed to her 12 double faults. Konta plays the world No 61, Margarita Gasparyan, on Wednesday. The Russian, who turns 25 next week, was impressive in beating the Australian Priscilla Hon 7-6 (4), 6-4 in an hour and a half on Court 14.

On a windy Court 10, Dan Evans soaked up 12 aces to negotiate his way past the elegant French strokemaker Adrian Mannarino. He was happy with the 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 win in just over three hours but not his performance, and said Mannarino, an inventive and difficult opponent, was doing to him what he regularly does to others.

Harriet Dart is out of the tournament, lasting just an hour and 11 minutes against the Romanian qualifier Ana Bogdan, who had too many weapons for her and won 6-3, 6-1.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Harriet Dart said she ‘couldn’t do much’ against Ana Bogdan, who won 6-3, 6-1. Photograph: Dave Shopland/BPI/Shutterstock

Dart, who has had some good results this year and reached the third round at Wimbledon, said: “She played a pretty perfect match, I couldn’t really do much.”

On bigger stages on day one, the world No 1, Novak Djokovic, began the defence of his title in excellent style, beating Roberto Carballés Baena in under two hours, while the former Wimbledon and Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber was a shock loser in three sets to the unseeded Kristina Mladenovic.