MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams was more subdued in her first Grand Slam match since her outburst at the U.S. Open.
Top-ranked Williams started the defense of her Australian Open title with a 6-2, 6-1 victory today against 18-year- old Polish player Urszula Radwanska.
The victory was more like her previous match at Melbourne Park — a 6-0, 6-3 win over now No. 2-ranked Dinara Safina in last year’s final — than her last in a major: her loss to Kim Clijsters in the semifinals at Flushing Meadows.
Her profanity-laced tirade against a line judge who called her for a foot fault cost Williams that match, a record fine of $82,500 and a suspended ban,which means she’ll miss a U.S. Open if she has another such outburst at any Grand Slam event in the next two years.
Williams has written about the fine being unfair, saying it wouldn’t have been applied to a man in the same situation. But she has accepted it, set up a charity to raise an amount equal to the fines she received, and moved on.
“I always said what I did wasn’t right, but I turned that around, and I’m actually raising $92,000 to educate ladies, women, also for my school in Africa . . . also I’m giving some money to Haiti,” she said. “I don’t know whoever got fined like that. People said worse, done worse.”
On the men’s side, sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko had a 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 win over Dieter Kindlmann of Germany, advancing along with No. 12 Gael Monfils of France, No. 19 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland and No. 21 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.
Americans James Blake and John Isner reached the second round, but Sam Querrey, seeded 25th, did not, losing to German Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Blake had a 7-5, 7-5, 6-2 win over Frenchman Arnaud Clement, while Isner held off Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-4.
Fabrice Santoro extended his Grand Slam career into a fourth decade, but the 37-year- old Frenchman lasted only one match — a 7-5, 7-5, 6-3 loss to 14th-seeded Marin Cilic.
On TV today
1 p.m. (taped), 7 p.m. and 1 a.m., ESPN2
