Top-ranked Roger Federer ripped 54 winners past Fabrice Santoro on Monday, opening his Australian Open title defence with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 victory.
Federer won all 12 points in the first three games and lost just three points as he raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set.
”I think the start was important for me,” said Federer, who extended his winning streak to 22 matches. ”That set the tone for the rest of the match. I never really gave him a chance.”
Santoro agreed.
”It’s as if Roger was saying to me, ‘Right that’s what I’m offering you today, OK!’,” Santoro said. ”You get the feeling that in each of his matches he just wants to show straight off who the boss is.”
Santoro, who has twice beaten Federer on hard courts, was a tricky first-round opponent for the defending champ because of his reliance on spin and slice.
But he struggled with an upset stomach after an injection for a wrist problem, and even took a big gulp of warm soda when he was down 4-1 in the second to try to get a boost. It didn’t work.
Federer won 11 titles last season, including the Australian and US Open, Wimbledon and the Masters Cup. He started this season with another title at Qatar and beat second-ranked Andy Roddick in the final of an exhibition tournament.
In women’s first-round matches, Serena Williams had more trouble with her shoes than she did with Camille Pin, winning 6-1, 6-1 in the opening match on centre court.
Williams, who completed a ”Serena Slam” with a victory at Melbourne in 2003 but missed last year’s first Grand Slam due to an injured knee, mixed 27 winners with 22 unforced errors.
The seventh-seeded Williams hit some brutal backhand winners and kept the 23-year-old Pin scrambling just to stay in points.
Williams did a lot of running early, successful on nine net approaches and producing seven winners before her right shoe fell off at deuce in the second game and skidded behind the baseline.
Williams laced up the shoe and won the point when it was replayed. She spent time between games tying and retying her shoelaces, but otherwise didn’t have many problems.
A double-fault on the first point of the match was simply a sign of a nervous start, she said.
”But after the first game, I was OK. I thought if I just get the first game, then I’ll be all right. I think that’s just first-round nerves.”
After failing to win a major last season, Williams said she is one of the main contenders in a wide-open draw at Melbourne Park.
”I definitely wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think so; I’d rather stay home,” she said. ”My goals are pretty much just to win my matches. I think grand slams will come with it.”
Pin hit just one clean winner in each set and didn’t hold serve in the match.
US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova beat American Jessica Kirkland 6-1, 6-1 in 43 minutes, while 15th-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy and 17th-seeded Fabiola Zuluaga also advanced.
Slovakia’s Martina Sucha upset 16th-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan 7-5, 6-4.
Sania Mirza beat Australia’s Cindy Watson 3-6, 6-3, 6-0, becoming only the second Indian woman to win a main draw match at a grand slam.
Kuznetsova, seeded fifth, hit 22 winners and five aces. Kirkland had five doubles faults, 14 unforced errors and just two winners.
Seeded players through in the men’s draw included Dominik Hrbaty (20) and Croatians Ivan Ljubicic (22) and Mario Ancic (28). — Sapa-AP