Australian Open: Maria Sharapova will play Lindsay Davenport in a mouthwatering second-round clash at the Australian Open after both players came through their opening matches today.
However, the former world number ones' wins were achieved in contrasting fashion with Sharapova cruising through against Jelena Kostanic Tosic after Davenport had struggled to see off Sara Errani.
Davenport, who has been in impressive form since returning to the tour following the birth of her son last year, had to battle to a 6-2 3-6 7-5 against her Italian opponent, coming from a break down in the final set.
She was angered by a disputed line call deep in the 10th game of the decider but that seemed to spur her on and she soon wrapped up victory. Sharapova later had less trouble as she recorded a 6-4 6-3 win over Kostanic Tosic.
Top seed Justine Henin and defending champion Serena Williams both opened their campaigns with easy wins. Hot favourite Henin enjoyed a straightforward 6-2 6-2 victory over Aiko Nakamura in Melbourne.
Despite serving six double faults and landing only 49 per cent of her first serves, the Belgian still proved far too strong for her unseeded 24-year-old opponent as she extended her unbeaten run to 29 matches.
And afterwards the world number one had a warning for her rivals as she vowed to raise her game to new heights.
"What I did last year was amazing, it was the best season of my career," she said. "But I always have a lot of ambition, I want to get better and I want to improve."
Earlier Williams kicked off her defence of the title with a comfortable 6-3 6-3 win over Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova.
The three-time winner of the Melbourne event lacked her usual power and precision, but she was still too good for Gajdosova despite making a number of unforced errors.
However, it was far from plain sailing for third seed Jelena Jankovic, who narrowly avoided becoming the first major casualty of the tournament.
She finally defeated Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek 2-6 6-2 12-10 after more than three hours on the Vodafone Arena - surviving three match points in the process.
Five times Paszek served for the match but couldn't wrap up a shock win.
"I was just trying to stay positive somehow and I found a way to win," Jankovic said. "It was unbelievable when I was down those match points and I was really in some tough points and I was maybe lucky a few times. But a win is a win.
"I was actually praying and saying 'please God help me get out of the situation'."
The Serb picked up a thigh injury in Perth recently and needed more treatment during the epic encounter, although this time is was for a back problem.
"Especially in the third set I was getting very stiff," Jankovic added. "Tomorrow I don't play so I have time to recover but mentally I am really happy so that is the most important thing."
Former champion Amelie Mauresmo also had to recover from a set down, but she did so in some fashion. After losing the first set on a tie-break to Tatiana Poutchek, the 2006 winner didn't drop another game as she posted a 6-7 (6/8) 6-0 6-0 victory.
Among the other seeded women to advance were Russian number 11 Elena Dementieva, Tatiana Golovin (13) and Patty Schnyder (15), but Julia Vakulenko (32) was beaten in three sets by Elena Vesnina.
There was also disappointment for 23rd seed Vera Zvonareva as she was forced to quit her match with Ai Sugiyama while trailing 6-3 1-1.
It came as no surprise given the Russian had pulled out of Friday's final in Hobart after sustaining an ankle injury during practice.
In the men's singles, Andy Roddick marched through to the second round with a commanding straight-sets win over Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic.
The sixth-seeded American took only 98 minutes to claim a 6-3 6-4 7-5 win.
"It was all right," was Roddick's verdict on his performance, which included 13 aces. "I don't know if there was much rhythm to be had with the way he went about the match.
"So it's weird to feel like you got a lot out of it when some guy's taking the first ball and just charging. But I think those are the type of matches where if you're not match-tough can get a little tricky. I just tried to stay the course and get through his peaks and valleys."
Nikolay Davydenko got his title bid off to a flying start with an impressive straight-sets win over Michael Llodra.
The fourth seed would not have been best pleased with his draw against the Frenchman, who won the recent warm-up tournament in Adelaide, but Davydenko was fully focused as he posted a 7-5 7-5 6-3 victory.
Dark horses Mikhail Youzhny and Richard Gasquet both moved into the second round. Youzhny, the winner of the recent ATP tournament in Chennai where he thrashed world number two Rafael Nadal in the final, beat France's Mathieu Montcourt 6-0 6-2 7-6 (7/3).
And Gasquet survived a third-set blip to see off Australian wild
card Nick Lindahl 6-0 6-1 3-6 6-2.
Tommy Robredo, the 11th seed, fought back from two sets down
to beat German Mischa Zverev 4-6 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 7-5. However,
Juan Ignacio Chela (18) bowed out in four sets to Guillermo
Garcia-Lopez.