EN
Elementary estimates for the Riesz kernel and for its derivative are given. Using these we show that the maximal operator of the Riesz means of a tempered distribution is bounded from $H_p(ℝ)$ to $L_p(ℝ)$ (1/(α+1) < p < ∞) and is of weak type (1,1), where $H_p(ℝ)$ is the classical Hardy space. As a consequence we deduce that the Riesz means of a function $⨍ ∈ L_1(ℝ)$ converge a.e. to ⨍. Moreover, we prove that the Riesz means are uniformly bounded on $H_p(ℝ)$ whenever 1/(α+1) < p < ∞. Thus, in case $⨍ ∈ H_p(ℝ)$, the Riesz means converge to ⨍ in $H_p(ℝ)$ norm (1/(α+1) < p < ∞). The same results are proved for the conjugate Riesz means and for Fourier series of distributions.