Serena, Venus breeze into Aussie Open second round

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If Serena Williams hopes to clinch her record-tying 24th Grand Slam title this month, she couldn't have asked for a much better start to her campaign.

The seven-time Australian Open champion zipped past Laura Siegemund of Germany, 6-1, 6-1, on Rod Laver Arena to notch her opening-round win in Melbourne. The American superstar improved her nearly flawless record in first-round matches at Grand Slam events to an astounding 76-1.

The former World No.1, seeded 10th this year, is contesting a milestone 20th Australian Open, and her 56-minute win over Siegemund was her 100th career match at the event (now holding an 88-12 win-loss record at the tournament). Williams has played and won more matches than any other woman in the tournament’s history.

Siegemund broke Williams in the first game of the clash but the American exacted immediate and long-lasting revenge, winning 10 games on the run from there to open up a 6-1, 4-0 lead.

Williams went on to finish the encounter with 16 winners, four times her opponent's total. Williams converted six of her nine break points against 2020 Roland Garros quarterfinalist Siegemund.

Williams queues up a second-round clash with Nina Stojanovic, after the Serb defeated Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania, 6-3, 6-4. It will be the first meeting between Williams and 99th-ranked Stojanovic.

Williams's big sister Venus also notched a straight-set win early on Monday, ousting Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, 7-5, 6-2, on Margaret Court Arena.

Venus Williams and Flipkens had split their previous four meetings in a competitive rivalry, but this time around, the American legend collected a 92-minute win to defeat the former Top 20 player.

"Winning is always fun," Williams said after her win. "Never easy. She's definitely tricky. We've had some great battles in the past, as well."

Both players used aggressive serving in the tense first set, but Williams ultimately stormed back from a break down at 4-3 to eke out the opener. The two-time Australian Open finalist had far less trouble in the second set as she swept to a second-round tilt against former Top 5 player Sara Errani. 

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"I'm trying to get better every day," said Williams. "I think that no matter what happens to you in life, you always hold your head up high, you give a hundred million percent. That's what I do every single day. That's something that I can be proud of."

Today also extended one of Venus Williams's milestones, as she now has played in the 88th Grand Slam main draw of her career. She leads the Open Era (since 1968) in that statistic, holding a healthy lead over the woman in second place -- her sister Serena.

Serena and Venus spoke about each other as inspiration and motivation after their respective wins.

"We were hitting partners for the first two weeks, two and a half weeks, since we were here in Australia," Serena said, discussing her big sister. "It was so good to train with her. It was so good every day.

"It's also very inspiring because she still pushes me on a level that no one's able to push me, so it was incredibly helpful."

Venus concurred, saying that Serena is "the best player to hit with. You definitely don't want to miss because it's your sister, so you want to give her a good practice. Also her intensity level just raises your level.

"We definitely had some good practices. I think it definitely helped both of us."

Hsieh takes out Pironkova, sets Andreescu matchup

Naturally, the unconventional Hsieh Su-wei was ready for anything quarantine threw at her.

"For me it was quite easy, because I prepared a lot of games," Hsieh said. "I have a Switch, I have online games, I brought three books, so I had a lot of stuff to do. And I spent some time to do more posts on social media, to have some fun with my fans."

The plan seems to have paid off for the player from Chinese Taipei, as she defeated Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria, 7-5, 6-2, in a battle between crafty players in Monday's first round. 

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With her 76-minute win over Pironkova, Hsieh sets up a tantalizing second-round clash with 2019 US Open champion and No.8 seed Bianca Andreescu. 

Hsieh is also looking forward to the doubles, where she and regular partner Barbora Strycova are the No.1 seeds. They will be playing their first event together since Roland Garros at the end of last year.

"It's very exciting to play with someone that you know, and you win a couple tournaments, and you do very well," said Hsieh. "So it's going to be pretty fun, and I try to just enjoy the doubles. The doubles, it's a different game as the singles, you can do some funny stuff!"

Vondrousova, Jabeur advance; Riske, Wang Qiang upset

Monday was a mixed day for the No.17-32 seeds. No.19 seed Marketa Vondrousova had to go two hours and 22 minutes against Rebecca Peterson before prevailing 2-6, 7-5, 7-5.

No.27 seed Ons Jabeur, who became the first Arab woman to make a Grand Slam quarterfinal at last year's Australian Open, was also pushed to the limit. The Tunisian eventually overcame former Top 10 player Andrea Petkovic, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in a hair over two hours.

But Anastasia Potapova upset No.24 seed Alison Riske, 6-2, 6-1, and former Roland Garros finalist Sara Errani outlasted No.30 seed Wang Qiang, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.