Serena opens with victory

Mon., Jan. 14, 2008

Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

MELBOURNE, Australia – The difference in 12 months was easy to see.

Serena Williams, wearing fuchsia bicycle shorts and headband, a short white dress and dangling, chandelier-inspired earrings, found her form quickly and beat Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3, 6-3 in the first match in the Australian Open.

Last year, Williams was unseeded, ranked 81st and coming off one of her worst losses on tour – in a Tier 4 event at Hobart – yet she beat six seeded players en route to the title at Melbourne Park. It was her eighth, and least expected, Grand Slam win.

Expectations – hers and the pundits – are much higher this season.

“It’s obviously a lot different – I’m not No. 81 any more. And the court’s different – it’s a different color,” Williams told the crowd after her 62-minute match at Rod Laver Arena against wild-card entry Gajdosova, a Slovak who is representing Australia.

“I thought about last year, you know, my last match on that court I was able to win it – and that’s all I thought about. I didn’t think about holding up the trophy, I just got right back into the swing of things and thought, ‘I have to stay focused.’ “

Two former champions who were absent last year advanced to the second round this time, with top-ranked Justine Henin beating Japan’s Aiko Nakamura 6-2, 6-2, and 2000 winner Linsday Davenport holding off Italy’s Sara Errani 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.

Third-seeded Jelena Jankovic saved three match points and needed 3 hours, 9 minutes to edge Austria’s Tamira Paszek 2-6, 6-2, 12-10. The deciding set was 4 minutes shy of 2 hours, included 15 breaks of serve and an injury timeout for each player.

Henin was going through a divorce and skipped the last Australian Open, then came back to win the French and U.S. Opens and the season-ending championship.

On the men’s side, second-ranked Rafael Nadal, the only player to beat Roger Federer at the last 10 Grand Slams – at the last two French Opens – played Viktor Troicki of Serbia in the night match.

Federer has a Tuesday start after a disrupted buildup because of a stomach virus.

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Serena opens with victory

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