Tennis: Hewitt serves notice of title intent

MELBOURNE - Australian Lleyton Hewitt crushed Arnaud Clement in straight sets early this morning (NZT) to kick off his Australian Open title bid.

Hewitt cranked up his serving game, clocking over 190km/h on the speed radar, to sweep Frenchman Clement aside 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.

The night session also proved a stroll for women's top seed Lindsay Davenport, who thrashed Spain's Conchita Martinez 6-1, 6-0.

Davenport showed no mercy against the seasoned Spaniard as she raced to victory in just 48 minutes on centre court.

Martinez, who won Wimbledon in 1994 and was an Australian Open finalist in 1998, had no answer to the American's superior power and pace, winning just seven points in the second set of a lopsided match.

"I felt pretty good. You can't really pick on too many things," Davenport said.

"It was a very mental match. I made a few more errors in the beginning and once I settled down I felt obviously great."

Davenport said she was still feeling the after-effects of the bronchitis that had forced her to pull out of last week's Sydney International but was confident it had almost cleared.

Former world No 1 Venus Williams stuttered to a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Greece's Eleni Daniilidou.

Williams stormed through the first set in just 23 minutes but Daniilidou pushed her hard in the second before the American wrapped up victory in 1h 17m.

Williams, who has not won a grand slam title since the US Open in 2001, began well but 26 unforced errors allowed Daniilidou, the world No 40, back into the match.

After being broken when serving for the match at 5-4 in the second, Williams broke the Greek in the next game and served out to love to set up a clash with Peng Shaui of China.

Men's second seed Andy Roddick overcame a slow start to beat Georgia's Irakli Labadze 7-5, 6-2, 6-1.

The big-serving American fired 11 aces and broke his opponent five times to seal a comfortable victory in an hour and a half on centre court.

The first 10 games went with serve but Roddick took control late in the opening set, breaking Labadze for the first time before winning 14 of the last 17 games.

"Obviously, it wasn't great tennis in the first set. But the last couple of sets, I felt like I started hitting the ball a little bit better," Roddick said.

"You'd rather have momentum going that way than backwards."

Labadze has a miserable record in Melbourne. He was knocked out in the first round of his three previous appearances and his frustration got the better of him when he was warned for an audible obscenity in the second set.

Roddick made his afternoon more miserable when he hammered a 209km/h serve that almost hit the Georgian in the chest.

Labadze was forced to duck for cover again a few points later when Roddick slammed an overhead smash straight at him.

Greg Rusedski exorcised a few demons to beat Swede Jonas Bjorkman 2-6, 6-4, 6-0, 7-6 to also reach the second round - for the first time in three years.

The 31-year-old Briton, who was eliminated in the first round last year soon after it was revealed he had failed a drugs test - an offence of which he was later cleared - recovered from a slow start to register the win in 2h 43m.

The former US Open runner-up next plays Roddick.

* Tennis great Rod Laver will miss this year's centenary Australian Open because his wife, Mary, is seriously ill in the United States.

Laver, one of the greatest players of all time, told organisers that he would be unable to travel from his Californian home.

He did not elaborate on the illness to his wife.

The centre court at Melbourne Park is named Rod Laver Arena in honour of the 66-year-old Queenslander who recently recovered from a stroke.

- REUTERS, AAP