MELBOURNE, Australia — The difference in 12 months was easy to see.
Serena Williams found her form quickly and beat Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3, 6-3 today in the first match at the Australian Open.
Last year, Williams was unseeded, ranked 81st and coming off one of her worst losses on tour — in a Tier 4 event — yet she beat six seeded players en route to the title at Melbourne Park. It was her eighth, and least expected, Grand Slam win.
Expectations — hers and the pundits — are much higher this season.
“It’s obviously a lot different — I’m not No. 81 anymore,” Williams told the crowd after her 62-minute match at Rod Laver Arena against wild-card entry Gajdosova, a Slovak who is representing Australia. “I thought about last year, you know, my last match on that court I was able to win it — and that’s all I thought about.”
Top-seeded Justine Henin, in her first match at Melbourne Park since retiring from the 2006 final against Amelie Mauresmo, won the last six games to beat Aiko Nakamura 6-2, 6-2, her 29th consecutive win.
Henin was going through a divorce and skipped the last Australian Open, then won the French and U.S. Opens.
Third-seeded Jelena Jankovic saved three match points and needed 3 hours, 9 minutes to edge Austria’s Tamira Paszek 2-6, 6-2, 12-10. American Lindsay Davenport, the 2000 champion, defeated Sara Errani 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
In early men’s matches, No. 11 Tommy Robredo rallied to fend off Mischa Zverev 4-6, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 7-5; No. 24 Jarkko Nieminen outlasted Frank Dancevic 6-3, 6-1, 5-7, 2-6, 6-1; No. 28 Gilles Simon beat American Bobby Reynolds 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-4; and Mardy Fish, who combined with Williams in the United States’ Hopman Cup winning team earlier this month, beat Boris Pashanski 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
