AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Venue: Melbourne Park Date: 18-31 January
BBC coverage: Every Murray match live on BBC 1 or 2
Daily from 0830 GMT: live on BBC Red Button/website, 5 Live sports extra
Daily from 0000 GMT: text commentary on BBC Sport website
 Serena wore heavy strapping on her right thigh |
Serena Williams made a solid start to her Australian Open title defence and then questioned the fine that followed her last Grand Slam appearance. The American beat Poland's Urszula Radwanska 6-2 6-1 in her first Grand Slam match since she verbally abused a line judge at the US Open in September. Williams could have been suspended for the outburst but in the end was fined. "I don't know anyone who ever got fined like that, and people have said worse and done worse," she said. "I just thought it was a bit much, but that was that." She added: "$92,000 is a lot of money to fine someone. I always said what I did wasn't right, but I turned that around and I'm actually raising $92,000 to educate ladies, women, also for my school in Africa, and also I'm giving some money to Haiti as well.  | The conditions were very tough |
"I actually think it was good that the whole incident happened, that I got fined, because at the end of the day I'm raising money for other people." The top seed wore heavy strapping on her right leg as a precaution and was below her best against Radwanska, but still had far too much power for her teenage opponent as she won in one hour and 13 minutes. The 28-year-old has never been beaten in the opening round of a Grand Slam, a run spanning 41 matches. "I was a little nervous because that (record) is always on the back of my mind," she said. "Records are meant to be broken so I'm like, 'God, I hope this record is not to be broken'. It's my personal record. "This one means a lot to me. That's something that I want to keep up for my career." Sister Venus Williams, resplendent in a short canary yellow dress, had little difficulty advancing to the second round with a 6-2 6-2 victory against Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic. | 606: DEBATE |
The elder Williams sibling, who lost to Carla Suarez Navarro in round two last year, is seeded six for this year's Championship. Former world number one Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 runner-up, also progressed after she beat Shenay Perry 6-2 6-3. The Serb has slipped to 21st in the rankings over the last year, with her serve a particular problem, and she made five double faults and faced nine break points against Perry. "The conditions were very tough," she said. "It was very cold and windy and a lot different than at the Brisbane International or what I've been used to. "But I just tried to work my way through, just taking time and tried to stay composed. I thought I played well and served good." Elsewhere, eighth seed Jelena Jankovic overcame a slow start to see off Romania's Monica Niculescu 6-4 6-0 and set up a clash with Britain's Katie O'Brien. "I made some errors in the beginning, and then I just tried to stay calm and to focus," said the Serbian. "Then I came back into the game. "Second set, I figured out what she was doing and what I needed to do - that was basically it, I finished the job in two sets." Australia's Sam Stosur, the 13th seed, was less than convincing as she beat Han Xinyun of China 6-1 3-6 6-2. Stosur, who reached the semi-finals of last year's French Open, said she was trying to enjoy her newfound fame in her home country. "You drive to the courts and you see your face at tram stops, it's a little bit different to what I've ever seen before going to Melbourne Park. Again, it something new," she said. "I'm enjoying it while the attention's there, because you never know when it can go away. I want to enjoy this and make the most of it."
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