Serena says Venus should be back at Aussie Open

World number one, Williams beat Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei 6-1 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena as Federer saw off Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3 7-5 6-1.

There were no such worries in Konta’s second attempt at serving for the set, though, as she held to love, delivering it with her third ace.

It removed a huge monkey from her back, having lost in the first round at all 14 Grand Slam matches she had played before – the worst record of any top-300 player. “I’m just happy I was able to deal with it the best I could and come through”.

Williams fired down seven aces, tallied 26 winners and broke serve on four occasions as she made light work of the world number 90.

“I’m coming apart… Do we have any more questions?” she said. “I was like, “Yay”.

Williams though was taking nothing for granted in only her second tour-level match since the US Open in September.

Federer will next play Grigor Dimitrov, who has a style that has been compared with Federer’s, after the No. 27-seeded player beat Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Milos Raonic followed up his victory at the Brisbane International with a clinical, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 first-round win over Lucas Pouille on the second day of the season’s first major.

The day before in Melbourne, Rafael Nadal lost 7-6 (6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 to Fernando Verdasco and was eliminated in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament for only the second time in his career.

Among them is 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard, who continued an injury comeback Monday beating Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4.

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“I think being down set point nearly helped me. I want try one more time, only one more time”.

Novak Djokovic opened his title defense with a straight-sets win, before going to the defense of his sport as reports of match-fixing overshadowed the season-opening Grand Slam. “It was a good match-up for me to play someone who can hit any shot at any time, and anywhere on the court”.

Williams will next face world No. 69 Daria Kasatkina after the Russian accounted for Croatian Ana Konjuh 6-4 6-3.

It was the eighth time she has lost in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament and the third in Australia, where she reached the quarterfinals in her first appearance in 1998 and lost the final to her youngest sister, Serena, in 2003.

“I don’t think it’s going to be easy”, Serena said.