Ben Sutton
and Bren O'Brien at Melbourne Park
Defending champion Kim Clijsters has joined women's No.3 seed Victoria Azarenka and No.5 seed Li Na in the second round of the Australian Open after a straight forward victory on the opening day of the tournament.
11th seed Clijsters overcame a slow start before cruising past Portuguese qualifier Maria Joao Koehler 7-5 6-1 in 68 minutes.
Games went with serve in the opening set with not a single opportunity to break until Koehler found herself 0-40 down in the 12th game.
The world No.223 double faulted to hand Clijsters the opening set before the Belgian star strolled through the second to book a second-round date with either Stephanie Foretz Gacon or Elena Baltacha.
Azarenka, a quarter-finalist in Melbourne two years ago, breezed through in 67 minutes to become the first player to win a match at the 2012 tournament.
The Belarusian was a bit sluggish to start with, allowing the world No.105 a look at a break point in just the second game, but from that point onwards, the match belonged to Azarenka.
She broke Watson in the third, fifth and seventh games on her way to winning the opening set with 11 winners and nine unforced errors.
Azarenka then upped her game in the second set, barely allowing Watson a look in. Unforced errors on break points from Watson handed the No.3 seed a 4-0 lead and she wrapped up the match when she forced her opponent to err at the end of a 14-shot rally.
Next up for Azarenka will be local hope Casey Dellacqua, who cruised past Serbian Bojana Jovanovski on Margaret Court Arena.
Li, the beaten finalist from 12 months ago, also had an easy time of it, getting past Kazakhstan's Ksenia Pervak 6-3 6-1 in 69 minutes.
Li made heavy weather of it in the first set, breaking her opponent in the sixth game, only to hand it back the next game to love. However, she regathered to break her at the fifth attempt in the eighth game and go on to serve it out.
Another break of serve early in the second set the French Open champion on her way and further breaks in the third, fifth and then the seventh games secured her easy passage to a second round clash with either Swede Sofia Arvidsson or Australian Olivia Rogowska.
Her compatriot Shuai Peng, seeded 16, had a similarly easy time in beating Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai.
No.8 seed Agnieszka Radwanska survived a scare against American Bethanie Mattek-Sands in her opening match. The Pole dropped the first set before rallying to prevail 6-7 (10-12) 6-4 6-2.
She next faces Argentine qualifier Paula Ormaechea, who knocked out Simona Halep 6-1 3-6 7-5.
No.10 seed Francesca Schiavone cruised past Laura Pous Tio on Hisense Arena 6-1 6-3 and now plays Romina Oprandi, who ousted Anastasiya Yakimova in straight sets.
The biggest casualty so far is 19th seed Flavia Pennetta, who found Russian qualifier Nina Bratchikova too strong, losing in three sets 6-3 1-6 6-2. It is the first time the Italian has failed to get past the first round in Melbourne for five years.
No.24 seed Lucie Safarova is also out, upset by American Christine McHale in straight sets.
Other seeds to progress have been Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova (20), who now plays Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko, Germany's Julia Goerges (22), Czech Petra Cetkovska (32) and Spain's Annabel Medina Garrigues (26), who faces a second round match against Olga Gavortsova.
A $10,000 bet on Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm went awry as the 41-year-old was comfortably beaten by Greece's Eleni Daniilidou 6-3 6-2.