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| Novak Djokovic |
Defending
champions Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams raced into the Australian
Open second round on Monday as the year’s first Grand Slam was rocked by
claims of widespread match-fixing in tennis, AFP reports.
Former winners Roger Federer and Maria
Sharapova also progressed smoothly on a day of high temperatures at
Melbourne Park, where one ballboy felt faint and had to be helped from
the court.
Djokovic’s main opponent was the 35
Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) heat as, cooling himself with ice vests on the
change-overs, the top seed dispatched Korean rising star Chung Hyeon
6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Williams also made a positive return to
competitive tennis, four months after a heartbreaking defeat in the US
Open semi-finals ended her bid for a rare calendar-year Grand Slam.
Showing no discomfort from the swollen
knee which forced her out of this month’s Hopman Cup mixed-team
tournament, Williams toughed it out 6-4, 7-5 against Italy’s Camila
Giorgi.
The American, 34, is seeking an Open-era
record-equalling 22nd Grand Slam title, while Djokovic can become only
the second man to win six Australian Open crowns after Roy Emerson.
Federer was also untroubled in his 6-2,
6-1, 6-2 win over Georgia’s Nicoloz Basilashvili as he continued his
quest for a record-extending 18th Grand Slam title.
Sharapova, the women’s winner in 2008,
beat Japan’s Nao Hibino 6-1, 6-3 in just 73 minutes in her first match
of the year after a forearm injury forced her out of the Brisbane
International.