NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top seed Martina Hingis returned to the Grand Slam stage under cover of darkness Monday and survived a first-round wake-up call in the first night match of the 1999 U.S. Open tennis championships.

The Swiss world number one overcame a game but error-prone Czech Kveta Hrdlickova 6-1 7-5 to advance to the second round of the year's final Grand Slam, which is already better than her most recent Wimbledon showing.

Hingis hit a career low point with her previous two Grand Slam appearances.

In the French Open final, the petulant teenager was jeered off the court by fans after her stunning display of poor sportsmanship against Steffi Graf -- trespassing to the German's side of the court to argue a line call and serving underhand on match point.

At Wimbledon, during a temporary split with mother and coach Melanie Molitor, Hingis was swept out of the All-England club by Australian newcomer Jelena Dokic in the first round.

``When I was watching on TV at Wimbledon I felt like I should be out there,'' admitted Hingis, who has since patched things up with her mother, calling the split ``a mistake.''

Hingis, a month shy of her 19th birthday, said she learned some lessons from those losses.

``You can learn a lot more from losing sometimes,'' she said. ``Winning comes natural to me, I'm used to that.''

She looked like she might have another hard lesson coming the way the 74th-ranked Hrdlickova took control in the second set.

The Czech started going for winners on nearly every shot with Hingis content to counter-punch from the baseline as her opponent dictated the points.

Hrdlickova belted 19 winners in the second set to just six for the top seed. But the go-for-broke attitude also produced a slew of unforced errors as she repeatedly overhit on key points.

Hrdlickova squandered chances to go ahead 4-0, 5-2 and 5-3 as Hingis hung on to level the set 4-4 with the help of some of the Czech's 50 unforced errors.

Hingis failed in her first attempt to serve out the match at 5-4, losing her serve for the third time in the set. But she broke back for 6-5 after Hrdlickova had saved two match points and made the most of her next opportunity to avoid a third set.

``She was playing some good tennis out there. She hit some great winners,'' noted Hingis, who admitted that she was lulled into a false sense of confidence by how easy the 18-minute first set had been.

``It was a wake-up call a little bit,'' Hingis said of the 71- minute test.

``It's always nice to have the first match behind me.''