New Delhi: Men's world No 2 Rafael Nadal, defending women's champions Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis have all advanced into the second round of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
Spaniard Nadal beat Robert Kendrick in straight sets. The first set saw both winning their service games to stay level, where Nadal held on to win in the tie-breaker.
After that Kendrick did not recover. He lost the next two sets easily to Nadal, going down 7-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Argentine David Nalbandian went through to the second round after his opponent Janko Tipsarevic retired in the fifth set.
Fourth seed Belgian Kim Clijsters, who is competing in her last season of professional tennis, has also moved into Round II.
The Belgian playing at the Melbourne Park for the last time played some powerful tennis to rout her opponent from Russia. She beat Vasilisa Bardina in straight sets.
Dominating the match throughout, Clijsters thrashed Bardina 6-0, 6-0 in just 44 minutes.
The fourth seed has not won the Australian Open yet. Her best result was reaching the final in 2004. But with this commanding performance she has underlined her status as one of the favourites.
Swiss Martina Hingis also progressed to the second round of the Australian Open.
Hingis beat Nathalie Dechy in straight sets 6-0, 6-2. The sixth seed looked in no trouble at all, taking a little less than an hour to dispose her French opponent.
Dechy had reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2005. Martina Hingis will play the winner of the Kudryavtseva-Laine match, and may even have an encounter with Sania Mirza in the third round if both win their matches.
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