Top seed Roger Federer of Switzerland has easily defeated French opponent Fabrice Santoro in straight sets in his opening round match at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
The defending champion of the first major tennis tournament of the year won the first 12 points in crushing the 49th-ranked Santoro, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 Monday. Federer will play either American Jan-Michael Gambill or Japan's Takao Sukui in the next round.
American Serena Williams opened the tournament with an easy 6-1, 6-1 victory over Camille Pin of France. In another early match in the women's draw, U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia beat American Jessica Kirkland, 6-1, 6-1, in just 43 minutes.
Later today, American Andre Agassi goes against German qualifier Dieter
Kindlmann.
Some information provided by AP and AFP.
