MELBOURNE (AFP) - The top women's seeds blew away the cobwebs at the Australian Open Wednesday, with Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Justine Henin convincing winners as former champ Lindsay Davenport fell.
Fifth seed Sharapova gave comeback mum Davenport's Grand Slam dream a reality check in their second round clash, while defending champion Williams and top seed Henin showed none of the rustiness evident in their opening games.
Sharapova said she was excited about her night-time tie with the unseeded Davenport on centre court, believed to be the first time two former world number ones and Grand Slam champions have met so early in a major.
"Showtime, I love that," the 20-year-old said.
The glamorous Russian duly turned on the style, rattling the unseeded Davenport with an early onslaught then running an opponent 11 years her senior around the court to take the match 6-1, 6-3 in 66 minutes.
"I approached it like it was a final," she said, hailing Davenport's return to Grand Slam tennis just seven months after giving birth to a baby boy Jagger as incredible.
Davenport, the champion here in 2000, has won three tournaments since coming back in September but said her first post-baby encounter with a Grand Slam winner showed she still had work to do to again crack the top 10.
"She was head and shoulders better than I was," the 31-year-old American admitted.
Williams, who brutally ended Sharapova's Grand Slam ambitions to win the final here last year, also turned in a blistering performance that sent an ominous warning to rivals eyeing her Australian title.
The American crushed Chinese qualifier Meng Yuan 6-3, 6-1, displaying the aggression that delivered her a stunning victory in 2007, even though she was coming back from injury and ranked only 81 in the world.
"I'm really focused and serious on every match," said Williams, seeded seventh this year.
World number one Henin, the top seed and bookie's favourite to wrest the title from Williams, downed Russia's Olga Poutchkova 6-1, 7-5 to notched up her 30th straight win.
The Belgian held off a late challenge from Poutchkova and said she was hungry to add to her 2004 success here after skipping the event in 2007 as her marriage to marriage to Pierre-Yves Hardenne broke down.
"I'd love to win every Grand Slam two times," said the 25-year-old, who returned from her domestic woes last year to win the US and French Opens and become the most dominant women's player since Steffi Graf 18 years ago
Serbian third seed Jelena Jankovic ensured a place in the Australian Open third round on Wednesday with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Romania's Edina Gallovits.
Jankovic said she struggled with a stiff shoulder, possibly brought on by an epic three-hour opening match and the after-effect of a thigh injury picked up in her tournament lead up.
Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, seeded eighteenth, revived memories of her choker tag when the 2006 champion squandered nine match points before finally beating Russia's Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4, 7-6 (7/5).
