Triple Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova has sizzled into the second round of the Australian Open along with world No.2 Petra Kvitova.
Sharapova, the 2008 champion at Melbourne Park who is seeded No.4 this year, needed just 58 minutes to cast aside Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-0 6-1, with Dulko's only game coming when Sharapova lost her way in the third game of the second set.
Twelve months after reaching the quarter-finals in Melbourne, Wimbledon champion Kvitova breezed past Sharapova's fellow Russian Vera Dushevina in only 61 minutes, the Czech second seed breaking three times in each set en route to the 6-2 6-0 victory.
She may have battled in the heat in previous visits to Melbourne but Sharapova proved too strong on Tuesday, apart from some wayward serving in the second set both when she was broken after leading 40-0 in the third game and when she rallied from 0-40 when serving for the match.
Apart from hitting 14 winners to just four, the other major difference for Sharapova was converting six of nine break points to Dulko's one from five, booking for Sharapova a second-round meeting with American Jamie Hampton who crushed Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 6-1 6-1.
Kvitova meanwhile did drop her serve once in her match, in just the second game courtesy of a double fault but from there she reeled off 11 of the final 12 games to set up a round-of-64 battle with Spaniard Carla Suarrez Navarro after she beat Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 6-1 7-5.
The most telling measure of Kvitova's dominance was the fact that she struck 19 winners to just seven from Dushevina, who won just 37 percent of points on her own serve in the one-sided encounter.
German No.14 seed Sabine Lisicki had to overcome a second-set lapse to see off Stefanie Voegler of Switzerland 6-2 4-6 6-4, earning her a shot at 2007 Melbourne Park quarter-finalist Shahar Peer after the Israeli made short work of Australian Isabella Holland, winning 6-2 6-0 in just 57 minutes.
Russian 15th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will next play American Vania King in the second round after she beat Kvitova's countrywoman Klara Zakopalova 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 and King defeated Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.
No.17 seed Dominika Cibulkova downed fellow Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3 6-1, and she'll next play Hungarian Greta Arn after her 6-4 6-2 defeat of Canadian Rebecca Marino.
Estonian 25th seed Kaia Kanepi cruised past Swede Johanna Larsson 6-2 6-4 and will now play either Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn or Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
Russian No.27 seed Maria Kirilenko overcame stiff resistance from Australian Jarmila Gajdosova to win 6-4 6-2, pitting her next against Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak who had an easy 6-3 6-3 win over Shuai Zhang of China.
Czech Lucie Hradecka also advanced comfortably, downing Evgeniya Rodina 6-3 6-1, but she could find herself matched up with a second Russian opponent in succession, this time No.7 seed Vera Zvonareva, who is still to open her campaign against Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru.
Australian Jelena Dokic beat Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-2 6-1 but she may find things tougher next up against Marion Bartoli, provided the No.9 seed gets past fellow Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano first.