Serena Williams launched her latest bid for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam with a 56-minute demolition of Laura Siegemund at the Australian Open.
The American, said it was “vintage Serena” as she thrashed the German 6-1 6-1 in front of a small, unmasked crowd at the Rod Laver Arena.
US Open champion, Naomi Osaka also made a convincing start with a 6-1 6-2 win over Russia’s Ana-stasia Pavlyu-chenkova.
In the men’s draw, Novak Djokovic started the defence of his Australian Open title by dropping just six games in a dominant win over Jeremy Chardy.
The Serbian top seed eased to a 6-3 6-1 6-2 victory to extend his 100% winning record against Chardy to 14 matches.
Austrian third seed Dominic Thiem, German sixth seed Alexander Zverev and Australia’s Nick Kyrgios also won their first round matches.
