Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo raised fresh doubts about her mental application as she advanced to the Australian Open second round on Monday, while a fired-up Serena Williams belied her unseeded status.
MELBOURNE: Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo raised fresh doubts about her mental application as she advanced to the Australian Open second round on Monday, while a fired-up Serena Williams belied her unseeded status.
French world number three Mauresmo admitted she lost concentration as she committed 16 unforced errors and took an hour and 14 minutes to overcome dogged American Shenay Perry 6-3, 6-4.
"There were some good moments and some moments, especially at the end to finish off the match, where my mind went out a little bit and I thought I lost some intensity, some aggression," she said.
"I probably should have closed it out a little bit quicker but that's the way it is -- it's the first match, the first round."
Mauresmo, the second seed at the tournament where she made her breakthrough Grand Slam victory last year, said she needed to fine tune her game and refocus before facing Russian Olga Poutchkova in the second round.
Perry capitalised on a string of early Mauresmo mistakes to post a service break in the third game of the first set.
There were signs of the nerves that have dogged Mauresmo's career when she double faulted serving out the first set but she steadied herself to claim the match.
Williams did not lack motivation as she staged a Grand Slam comeback at the tournament where she won two of her seven majors.
Unseeded and ranked number 81 in the world, Williams was out to disprove the doubters who said she lacked physical conditioning after contesting only four tournaments in an injury plagued 2006.
She did so in style, showing glimpses of her old brilliance across the court as she crushed Italian 27th seed Mara Santangelo 6-2, 6-1.
"I'm feeling pretty good, I'm excited to be back out here and I came out and finally did what I'm supposed to do to a certain level. I love playing out here," Williams said.
"It was a tough year last year but going into this year I feel like I have nothing to lose and there's only one way to go guys, and that's up -- it's the most amazing feeling."
Asked if she could complete a hat-trick of Australian Open championships, Williams replied: "Absolutely, that's why I'm here."
Elsewhere in the women's draw, Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion, barely raised a sweat in beating local hope Jessica Moore 6-2, 6-0.
Elsewhere, Russian fifth seed Nadia Petrova ended any hopes Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn had of an upset with a 6-3, 6-2 victory.
Another Russian, seventh seed Elena Dementieva, comfortably beat France's Stephanie Foretz 6-1, 6-2 while Serbia's 11th seed Jenena Jankovic continued her strong start to 2007, downing Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-3, 6-3.
French teenager Tatiana Golovin, the 20th seed, beat Anna Smashnova of Israel 6-3, 6-1 and Japan's Ai Sugiyama fought out a 6-3, 6-4 win over Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.
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