Serena, Hewitt make it hard for themselves

Serena then clawed her way back from a break down in the third to book a second-round clash with Belgian Els Callens.

Hewitt, knocked out in the opening round last year when he was suffering from a bout of chickenpox, almost tripped up again when he was pushed all the way by 155th-ranked Swedish qualifier Magnus Larsson before eventually winning 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7, 6-2. While Williams and Hewitt made shaky starts to their campaigns, two of their biggest rivals showed they were in great touch with powerful displays.

Fourth seed Kim Clijsters was in irresistible form in crushing American Samantha Reeves 6-2, 6-1 while last year’s men’s runner-up Marat Safin showed he was ready to go one better this time with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Dutchman Raemon Sluiter.

The big Russian showed no ill-effects from the shoulder problem that forced him to pull out of last week’s Sydney International although he said he was using anti-inflammatory drugs to ease his pain.

After the shock loss of twice champion Jennifer Capriati on Monday, there were no major casualties on the second day at Melbourne Park. Twice French Open finalist Alex Corretja was the highest seed at 15 to lose on Tuesday. He fell to fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-3.

Men’s sixth seed Roger Federer ousted Flavio Saretta 7-6, 7-5, 6-3; ninth seed Andy Roddick recovered from a set down and a break in the third to beat Zeljko Krajan 6-7, 6-2, 7-6, 6-3; and seventh seed Jiri Novak beat Vince Spadea 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6. The women’s matches also went mostly according to script with sixth-seed Monica Seles crushing Slovakian teenager Lubomira Kurhajcova 6-0, 6-1 in 45 minutes and eighth seed Russian Anastasia Myskina sweeping past Eva Fislova 7-5, 6-3. (Reuters)