Ivanovic and Kuznetsova Through to Second Round

There were straight-sets wins in the first round of the Australian Open today for the No4 seed Ana Ivanovic and the No2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, but Ivanovic was made to work hard for a 7-5, 6-3 win over Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea of Romania before taking her place in the last 64. The more impressive display came from the 22-year-old Kuznetsova, who dismissed France's Nathalie Dechy, a former Australian Open semi-finalist, 6-3, 6-1 in a little over an hour on Rod Laver Arena.

While Dechy has not won a match in Melbourne since making the final four in 2005, it was hard to fault Kuznetsova's game, as she had 17 winners to Dechy's eight. Kuznetsova, who was beaten in the final in Sydney by world No1 Justine Henin last week and at last year's US Open, said she is happy to slip under the radar for now and is not worried that she does not have the profile of other players.

"I don't care about my profile; I care about my game," she said. "Attention is definitely good. But too much attention is not good. I try to really focus on my game. This is what I take care of, and I want to really focus on that."

Kuznetsova feels she has ironed out the inconsistencies in her game in the past few months and believes she has the confidence to go progress in the tournament. "I go on the court and I feel more consistent that I can change things. Even if I'm not playing well, I always have Plan B or I can always control myself," she said.

Elsewhere, the No9 seed Daniela Hantuchova made light work of her opening round match, defeating American Vania King in straight sets 6-3, 7-5. Hantuchova, competing in her eighth Australian Open, had no troubles in the first match on Margaret Court Arena - progressing in just under two hours.

Sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze from Russia had and even easier time and did not have to hit a ball in anger to progress. Her opponent, Andrea Petkovic, withdrew with an injury suffered in the warm-up.

However, No8 seed Venus Williams struggled to find her groove in her first round contest with Yan Zi. The Wimbledon champion eventually ground out a 6-2, 7-5 win over her Chinese opponent after being broken to love when serving for the match at 5-3.

No27 seed Maria Kirilenko needed three sets to see off Meilen Tu 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Sania Mirza (seeded 31) dismissed Iroda Tulyaganova 6-4, 6-2; Alona Bondarenko (21) defeated Alla Kudryavtseva 6-4, 7-6 and Radwanska (28) dropped just one game against Olga Savchuk.

Hungarian Agnes Szavay, the No20 seed, departed after a three-set defeat by Ekaterina Makorova, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.

Results in full: Akiko Morigami (Jpn) bt Michaella Krajicek (Ned) 6-2, 6-2 Caroline Wozniacki (Den) bt Gisela Dulko (Arg) 6-1, 6-1 Yvonne Meusburger (Aut) bt Laura Granville (USA) 6-1, 6-4 (6) Anna Chakvetadze (Rus) bt Andrea Petkovic (Ger) ret Alize Cornet (Fra) bt Clarisa Fernandez (Arg) 6-3, 6-3 (9) Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) bt Vania King (USA) 6-3, 7-5 Marta Domachowska (Pol) bt Mathilde Johansson (Fra) 6-1, 6-1 (27) Maria Kirilenko (Rus) bt Melien Tu (USA) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 Tzvetana Pironkova (Bul) bt Olga Govortsova (Blr) 6-1, 6-1 Alisa Kleybanova (Rus) bt Shuai Peng (Chn) 7-5, 4-6, 9-7 (2) Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt Nathalie Dechy (Fra) 6-3, 6-1 Pauline Parmentier (Fra) bt Martina Muller (Ger) 7-5, 6-3 (29) Agnieska Radwanska (Pol) bt Olga Savchuk (Ukr) 6-0, 6-1 (31) Sania Mirza (Ind) bt Iroda Tulyaganova (Uzb) 6-4, 6-2 (21) Alona Bondarenko (Ukr) bt Alla Kudryavtseva (Rus) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) bt (20) Agnes Szavay (Hun) 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 Timea Bacsinszky (Swi) bt Sophie Ferguson (Aus) 6-4, 6-3 Mariya Koryttseva (Ukr) bt Maria Emilia Salerni (Arg) 6-2, 6-3 Catalina Castano (Col) bt (22) Lucie Safarova (Cze) 6-1, 6-4 Sabine Lisicki (Ger) bt (16) Dinara Safina (Rus) 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-2 (4) Ana Ivanovic (Ser) bt Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea (Rom) 7-5, 6-3 (14) Nadia Petrova (Rus) bt Nicole Pratt (Aus) 6-1, 6-3 (28) Katarina Srebotnik (Slo) bt Lourdes Dominguez Lino (Spa) 4-6, 6-0, 9-7 Anastassia Rodionova (Rus) bt Angelika Bachmann (Ger) 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 Sofia Arvidsson (Swe) bt (10) Marion Bartoli (Fra) 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-3 Tathiana Garbin (Ita) bt Eleni Daniilidou (Gre) 6-2, 6-2 Virginia Ruano Pascual (Spa) bt Roberta Vinci (Ita) 6-4, 6-4 Maria Elena Camerin (Ita) bt Christina Wheeler (Aus) 6-1, 6-2 Camille Pin (Fra) bt Monica Niculescu (Rom) 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 (24) Li Na (Chn) bt Severine Bremond (Fra) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4Anne Kremer (Lux) bt Evgenia Linetskaya (Rus) 7-6 (10-8), 6-0 (8) Venus Williams (USA) bt Zi Yan (Chn) 6-2, 7-5