Sam Stosur fell to 59th seed Sorana Cirstea on a blistering second day of the Australian Open. Stosur, the US Open Champion and home favourite, looked nervous from the start and lost the first set on a crucial tie-break and never quite recovered, playing out a poor second set to limp loosely to a 7-6 (6-2) 6-3 defeat. Stosur has never played well at her home Slam and will have to spend the next two weeks wondering where her game goes every time she has the roar of support solely on her side.
Williams, making her first appearance at the Aussie Open for two years, made a stodgy start to this years campaign against Austria's Tamira Paszek, winning 6-3 6-2. It was a patchy performance from the former world number one and she'll have to improve if she's going to prove as dangerous as in former years.
In the men's draw Djokovic and Murray made their starts and the world number one carried his imperious form of last year into this as he demolished Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 6-2 6-0 6-0. He is looking pretty darn good, I have to say.
Murray fought to win a decidedly tougher match in defeating dangerous American Ryan Harrison 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-2. He made a sluggish start and lost the first set tamely to a firing Harrison who had said before the match that he was excited to play Murray. The Scot, however, began to find his range mid-way through the second set and his experience showed as the game wore on and Harrison tired. Murray will meet Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin on Thursday for a place in the third round.
Roddick, Ferrer, Simon, Monfils and Hewitt are also through to the next round, with Kvitova, Wozniacki, Zvonareva and Sharapova joining them.
Day three will bring Federer and Nadal, Clijsters and Azarenka back to the forefront. But my second round pick? Roddick v Hewitt. It's going to be a humdinger, no doubt about it.
I'll keep you blogged...
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