MELBOURNE: Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams stuck to the Australian Open script with fairly routine victories on Tuesday, while men’s champion Stan Wawrinka and two-time winner Victoria Azarenka joined them in the second round.

The tournament had been turned on its head on the first day with eight women’s seeds, notably fifth-ranked Ana Ivanovic, crashing out in the first round.

Tuesday’s matches went mostly as expected, however, with Djokovic barely troubled while Serena had some issues in the second set against players ranked more than 100 places below them.

Bidding to become the second man to win five Australian Open titles and touted by pundits and fellow players as the player to beat, Djokovic put in just enough effort to beat Slovenian qualifier Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in a shade under two hours.

“For a first round performance it was pretty good,” said Djokovic, who has been dogged by a virus this month. “Still need to work on some things. I’m still developing my game so I’m glad to go through.”

Serena was at her ambivalently arrogant best in the first set, appearing to barely acknowledge Alison Van Utyvanck’s presence as she swatted aside the Belgian 6-0 in 21 minutes and then jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second.

Such was her dominance a ‘double-bagel’ appeared on the cards before the 20-year-old found her rhythm and range and forced the 18-times grand slam winner into a match, which caused some frustrations for the American before she ran out a 6-0, 6-4 winner.

“As always, I had the jitters going out in the first match of a grand slam,” she said. “It’s never super easy to be the one that everyone wants to beat.”

Despite taking a fall early in his match, Wawrinka was equally comfortable against Marsel Ilhan, the only Turkish man to have made a Grand Slam main draw, taking less than one-and-half hours to breeze through 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

“It’s great, bringing me a lot of memories from last year,” Wawrinka said of his return. “It was great to come back here feeling happy, happy with my game.”

Kei Nishikori also had few problems, enjoying a 6-4, 7-6, 6-2 victory over former top-10 player Nicolas Almagro, who is on the comeback trail after foot surgery last June. Eighth-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic also advanced, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 over qualifier Illya Marchenko.

In night matches, 33-year-old Lleyton Hewitt started his 19th consecutive Australian Open by beating Zhang Ze 6-3, 1-6, 6-0, 6-4.

Vasek Pospisil beat Sam Querrey 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 and Gael Monfils rallied from two sets down, and then from a break down in the fifth, to beat fellow Frenchman Lucas Pouille 6-7 (3-7), 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.

Ninth seed David Ferrer, 12th seed Feliciano Lopez, Roberto Bautista Agut and John Isner also advanced, while Fabio Fognini, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Julien Benneteau and Pablo Cuevas were all ousted.

Azarenka, unseeded after an injury-ravaged 2014, proved she was a dangerous floater in the draw as she got back to her banshee-screeching best, raising the decibel levels on Hisense Arena in a 6-3, 6-2 win over American Sloane Stephens.

The tournament does not get any easier for Azarenka with a second round clash against former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, who eventually outfought American teenager Taylor Townsend 7-6 (7-1), 6-2.

Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and sixth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska needed only 63 minutes each for their straight-sets wins over Richel Hogenkamp and Kurumi Nara, and 18th seed Venus Williams beat Maria Teresa Torro 6-2, 6-2.

Dominika Cibulkova, who lost in last year’s final to the now-retired Li Na, opened with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 comeback win against Kirsten Flipkens, and 2011 US Open champion Sam Stosur also advanced, while Flavia Pennetta, Andrea Petkovic and Jelena Jankovic were eliminated.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2015

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