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MELBOURNE - Nerves, ring-rust and a battling baseliner haunted three of the world's leading women at the Australian Open tennis championships yesterday. But Serena Williams, Justine Henin and Jelena Jankovic all managed to win through to round two.
The scorelines for Henin and Williams were emphatic - their performances less so - but third seed Jankovic survived an almighty ordeal before seeing off Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek.
The 17-year-old Paszek served for victory five times in a third set which included 15 breaks of serve.
Ultimately, however, experience told, with Jankovic winning 2-6, 6-2, 12-10, in three hours 10 minutes.
"I was down 4-1 [in the final set] and she was serving for the match so many times," an exhausted but exhilarated Jankovic said. "I just tried to break her somehow and I did it."
Williams needed just an hour to dispatch Australian wildcard Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3, 6-3 but her performance was patchy.
"I think everyone could probably tell I was a little scratchy," the defending champion said. "But it's the first round. Just moving forward. I think I was a wee bit nervous out there. But it's good to be back. I like to play in the heat ... I like the crowd."
The three-time champion's victory set up a second-round match with Yuan Meng of China.
Top seed Henin also made a winning return to Melbourne Park but she did not have it all her own way against Japan's Aiko Nakamura.
The world No 1 missed last year's Australian Open as she was going through a divorce but it was business as usual on the opening day of the 2008 event as she won 6-2, 6-2.
Henin failed with almost half her first serves, hit 26 unforced errors and will want to tighten her game against Russia's Olga Poutchkova or Australian wildcard Monique Adamczak in the second round.
Champion, top seed and world No 1 Roger Federer opens his campaign today against Argentina's Diego Hartfield.
- Reuters
