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Serena Williams and Federer march into Open second round
He dominated the fourth, ensuring there was no similar end to his previous match at Rod Laver Arena -- he finished in tears last year after losing the final to Rafael Nadal.
Federer hasn’t lost the opening round since the 2003 French Open, the event before he won Wimbledon for the first of his 15 Grand Slam titles.
“I prefer easier matches, but this worked as well.”
About the same time Federer dropped the first set, Serena Williams was in a news conference discussing how proud she was of extending her record of never losing the first round of a major.
She was more subdued in her first Grand Slam match since her outburst at the US Open, starting the defense of her Australian Open title with a 6-2, 6-1 win over 18-year-old Polish player Urszula Radwanska.
The victory was more like her previous match at Melbourne Park -- a 6-0, 6-3 win over now No. 2-ranked Dinara Safina in last year’s final -- than her last in a major: her loss to Kim Clijsters in the semifinals at Flushing Meadows.
Serena’s sister, Venus Williams, was playing later Tuesday against Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic. In what the WTA said was a record for the longest women’s match at a major in the Open era, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic needed 4 hours, 19 minutes to beat Russia’s Regina Kulikova 7-6 (5), 6-7 (10), 6-3.
On the men’s side, sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, No. 9 Fernando Verdasco — who lost an epic five-set semifinal to Nadal here last year — No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 12 Gael Monfils, No. 19 Stanislas Wawrinka and No. 21 Tomas Berdych all advanced. Americans James Blake and John Isner reached the second round, but No. 25 Sam Querrey lost to German veteran Rainer Schuettler.
Eighth-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden, who ended Nadal’s long streak at the French Open, was leading by two sets before losing in five to Marcel Granollers of Spain. No. 16 Tommy Robredo and No. 26 Jurgen Melzer also were ousted.
Blake had a 7-5, 7-5, 6-2 win over Frenchman Arnaud Clement, while Isner held off Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-4.
Fabrice Santoro extended his Grand Slam career into a fourth decade, but he lasted only one match -- a 7-5, 7-5, 6-3 loss to 14th-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia.
The 37-year-old Frenchman, who started his Grand Slam career at the 1989 French Open, retired last season but returned to Melbourne Park for a record 70th major.
Ana Ivanovic, who reached the Australian Open final and won the French Open in 2008, opened with a 6-2, 6-3 win over American Shenay Perry in the first match to finish Tuesday, when the rain that allowed only 26 of the scheduled 64 matches to be completed on the opening day gave way to sunny conditions.No. 8 Jelena Jankovic, No. 11 Marion Bartoli, No. 13 Sam Stosur and No. 19 Nadia Petrova advanced along with No. 26 Aravane Rezai, who beat India’s Sania Mirza 6-4, 6-2.
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