Third seed Jelena Jankovic saved three match points on her way to a 2-6 6-2 12-10 win over Austrian Tamira Paszek in a marathon Australian Open first-round match.

The 17-year-old Paszek served for the match five times in a third set which included 15 breaks of serve before Serb Jankovic sealed victory in three hours 10 minutes.

"I was down 4-1 and she was serving for the match so many times," Jankovic told the crowd. "I just tried to break her somehow, and I did it. I made so many unforced errors, but somehow I won, so I am very happy."

After an error-strewn first two sets, the match turned into a nailbiting affair and Paszek, having led 4-1 and 5-3 in the decider, squandered one match point in the 10th game and two more in the 12th.

Paszek continued to do most of the attacking and served for the match again at 7-6, 8-7 and 9-8 but Jankovic finally broke the Austrian again to win a contest that was 23 minutes short of the longest women's match in Australian Open history.

Earlier on Monday Serena Williams made a stuttering start to her Australian Open title defence when she battled past world number 145 Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3 6-3.

The American seventh seed, chasing her ninth grand slam crown, had to work hard against the Australian before coming through to set up a clash with Yuan Meng of China, who beat Russian Ekaterina Ivanova 4-6 6-4 6-2.

Sporting a white dress on top of pink cycling shorts, Williams dropped just four points on her way to a 3-0 lead but Gajdosova hit back to level at 3-3 as her opponent became unusually sluggish.

Once Williams had broken in the eighth game, though, she was always in control and eased through the second set to clinch victory in 62 minutes.

Justine Henin, meanwhile, made a winning return to Melbourne Park but although the scoreline was convincing, she did not have it all her own way against Aiko Nakamura.

The world number one missed the Australian Open last year as she was going through a divorce.

It was business as usual on the opening day of the 2008 event, however, as she posted a 6-2 6-2 win.

The score was emphatic but the Belgian's performance less so as she missed almost half of her first serves, hit 26 unforced errors and needed an hour and a half to beat her 73rd-ranked opponent.

Henin will next face either Russia's Olga Poutchkova or Australian wildcard Monique Adamczak in the second round.

Lindsay Davenport, in great form since returning to tennis late last year following the birth of her first child, also failed to make it look easy, struggling against Sara Errani before winning 6-2 3-6 7-5.

The American was not too upset about her performance, though, the victory making her the all-time career prize winning leader for women's sports. Monday's success put her career winnings at $21,897,501 (£11,160,139), overhauling Steffi Graf's 10-year-record.

In a battle of former world number ones Davenport will face Maria Sharapova in the second round after last year's fallen finalist eased past Croatia's Jelena Kostanic Tosic 6-4 6-3.

Former champion Amelie Mauresmo, a winner in Melbourne in 2006, was made to fight in her opening set before overcoming unseeded Belarusian Tatiana Poutchek 6-7 6-0 6-0.

And 12th seed Nicole Vaidisova was another easy winner, emerging victorious 6-2 6-0 against Romania's Iona Olaru.

Reuters