The Williams sisters both moved through their first round matches smoothly on Tuesday, a sharp contrast to some of the other marathon matches that took to the courts at Melbourne Park.Serena Williams, the top seed and a four-time champion at the year's first Grand Slam tournament, was the first of the pair to advance, overpowering Urszula Radwanska, 62 61, hitting 26 winners to just 13 for her opponent.
"I was happy to get through," Williams said. "The scoreline seemed to be easy, but it was a long match out there. I was just happy to get it over with."
Williams improved to 41-0 lifetime in first round matches at Grand Slams.
"Records are meant to be broken, so I was a little nervous today," the world No.1 added. "I said, 'God, I hope this won't be broken. It's my personal record. I don't know if it's any record, but it's my personal record. I want to keep it up.'
"This one means a lot to me because I love playing in Grand Slams and I love doing the best I can. To have an opportunity to have not lost yet in the first round of a Grand Slam - knock on wood - is really good for me. It's something I want to keep up the rest of my career. I hope that's not too much to ask."
Venus Williams, the No.6 seed and a former finalist here, losing to her sister in 2003, won through later in the day, beating Lucie Safarova almost as handily, 62 62. Williams has now won 27 of her last 28 matches against left-handers.
"Everyone knows how well Lucie can hit the ball," said Williams, who had won all three of their previous meetings, although she did save match point in their last one. "We've had some tough matches in the past and I wanted to stay focused and execute my game. It was a great way to start."
Other Top 16 seeds winning through were No.8 seed Jelena Jankovic, No.10 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, No.11 seed Marion Bartoli and No.13 seed Samantha Stosur. No.20 seed Ana Ivanovic also advanced.
Scores are posted on next article because of long length.
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