• Australian Open, Day One

Wozniacki cruises as Clijsters stutters through

Caroline Wozniacki showed no mercy as she crushed home favourite Anastasia Rodionova © Getty Images

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Men's round-up: Tomic edges Verdasco in epic
Federer sees off Kudryavtsev
Nadal mauls Kuznetsov
Woeful day for Brits in Melbourne

Day One Gallery
What They Said
Plays of the Day

World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki shrugged off fears of a wrist injury as she powered into the second round of the Australian Open with a straight-sets win over home favourite Anastasia Rodionova.

Wozniacki suffered an injury to her left wrist in Sydney last week, but showed little signs of impediment as she powered to a 6-2 6-1 victory on Rod Laver Arena.

Although the top seed in Melbourne, Wozniacki is by no means the favourite, but she laid down the gauntlet to her rivals with an emphatic victory in just 76 minutes. With Petra Kvitova threatening to overhaul her as world No. 1, Wozniacki wasted little time in booking her place in the second round.

Chasing her first grand slam, Wozniacki silenced the crowd as she bullied the Australian from the baseline, strolling to victory to set up a second-round clash with Anna Tatishvili, who beat Australian teenager Ashleigh Barty 6-2 7-6(4).

Kim Clijsters began the defence of her Australian Open title with a far-from-convincing 7-5 6-1 win over Maria Joao Koehler.

The Belgian had a tough time with injury in 2011 following her win in Melbourne and she looked well short of her best, but still had enough class to see off her Portuguese opponent.

Clijsters was shaky on serve in the opening set, sending down four double faults, and for five games she failed to make any impression on Koehler's serve. But when one game away from a tiebreak, Koehler threw in a shocking effort to hand the set to Clijsters.

Kim Clijsters will in all probability have to up her level if she is to defend her title © Getty Images

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The defending champion held at the start of the second set and a second successive poor service game from Koehler handed Clijsters the upper hand in the second set.

Koehler got on the board when taking advantage of some errors from Clijsters in the fourth game, but the No. 11 seed showed enough quality behind her own serve to ease into the second round.

Agnieszka Radwanska and Bethanie Mattek-Sands served up a treat on Court 2, with the pair trading blows for over three hours before the Polish No. 8 seed claimed a 6-7(10) 6-4 6-2 win.

Mattek-Sands is as unpredictable as her outfits and she served up a fitful display, racing into a 5-2 lead in the first only to squander six set points before getting the job done in a tiebreak.

The efforts of the first set appeared to take a toll on Mattek-Sands who left the court for treatment on a leg injury and had the trainer out on court on a number of occasions.

Radwanska took her chance to take a tight second set and as Mattek-Sands fatigued, the Pole stormed through the third.

The 19th seed Flavia Pennetta was beaten in three sets by Nina Bratchikova, but Julia Goerges had no trouble in easing past Polona Hercog.

Casey Dellacqua handed the home crowd something to cheer on the opening day as she eased to a 6-3 6-2 win over Bojana Jovanovski. Dellacqua will face Victoria Azarenka in round two following the No. 3 seed's routine win over Heather Watson.

Last year's beaten finalist Li Na looked much more like her true self, having ended 2011 in shocking form, as she shrugged aside the challenge of an admittedly limited Ksenia Pervak 6-3 6-1.

Francesca Schiavone, who was succeeded as French Open champion by Li, breezed into round two with a 6-1 6-3 win over Laura Pous-Tio.

The 20th seed Daniela Hantuchova battled back from the loss of the opening set to Varvara Lepchenko to claim a 4-6 6-3 6-2 victory, while veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm was comprehensively outpointed by Eleni Daniilidou and the 26th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues toppled Eva Birnerova in straight sets.

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