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Ana Ivanovic safely navigated the first round of the Australian Open with a 7-5 6-3 win over Julia Goerges.

The 21-year-old Serb, runner-up at Melbourne Park 12 months ago, struggled with her serve, had difficulty finding her range on groundstrokes and was generally given the runaround by her 107th-ranked opponent before squeaking through in 102 minutes.

Goerges had been making her main draw Australian Open debut but was in no way cowed by the experience.

Moving well and hitting the ball sweetly, she had fifth seed Ivanovic on the back foot early on before allowing herself to be reeled in.

In the final analysis it was her inability to close out the big points which cost her dearly - the 20-year-old German converted just two of seven break points in the contest.

Ivanovic, who suffered a stomach illness during her warm-up tournament in Brisbane, will next meet Italy's Alberta Brianti.

Top seed Jelena Jankovic advanced safely into the second round with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Austria's Yvonne Meusburger .

Jankovic romped away with the first set with Meusburger seemingly unable to find her range on her serve, winning just six points.

The Austrian, however, put up a better performance in the second set, though she still gave up 12 break opportunities, four of which Jankovic converted.

Jankovic sealed victory on her third match point, when Meusburger hit an overhead forehand volley into the net while she had the world number one scrambling around the baseline.

Jankovic will next meet Belgium's Kristen Flipkens, who beat Paraguay's Rossana De Los Rios 6-3 6-2.

Searing conditions during the first day's play at Melbourne Park failed to force any upsets on the women's side of the draw, as Russians Dinara Safina (seeded three) and Vera Zvonareva (seven) also advanced comfortably.

Safina, whose big-match temperament was once questioned, showed no sign of nerves in snuffing out a determined challenge from fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3 6-4.

Safina calmly lifted a gear each time Kudryavtseva threatened. While the 22 year-old will be keen to cut down on her unforced errors, she will be pleased with the steel Croatian coach Zeljko Krajan has brought to her game.

Zvonareva overcame early jitters to beat Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 7-6 (7-2) 6-0, taking control of the match in the second set after being pushed all the way in the first.

The 24-year-old's timing improved as the match wore on, suggesting she could push more fancied rivals for the year's first Grand Slam title.

Another member of the Russian brigade, 10th seed Nadia Petrova , advanced after beating Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3 7-6 (7-3) and Daniela Hantuchova knocked out local favourite Casey Dellaqua 7-6 6-4 in the evening match on Rod Laver Arena.

Hantuchova, a semi-finalist here last year and seeded 19th, was given an incredibly tough fight by the world number 57, with the Australian crowd getting right behind their plucky heroine.

Dellacqua even broke the Slovakian's serve in the very first game of the match, and despite losing her own serve three games later she went toe-to-toe with her opponent throughout an enthralling first set.

Inevitably that set went to a tie-break, but again nothing could seperate the players until Hantuchova finally won 13-11 after a clever drop shot forced her opponent to put the ball out too wide.

It was a body blow to Dellacqua, who then lost her serve in her first service game of the second set.

But the Aussie got back in to things, showing incredible spirit to fight back every time she looked done for - including a phenomenal tussle as she served to stay in the match at 5-3 down - but the rest of the encounter went with serve and Hantuchova went safely through.

But there was some home cheer as Australia's Jelena Dokic beat Austrian Tamira Paszek 6-2 3-6 6-4 to reach the second round of the year's first Grand Slam for the first time since 1999.

While there were no upsets, the tournament came close to producing a fairytale return when Japanese 38-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm lost narrowly to to an opponent 15 years her junior in a marathon three-setter.

Returning to Melbourne Park for the first time since 1996, former world number four Date Krumm held off Estonia's Kaia Kanepi for almost three hours before losing 6-4 6-4 8-6.

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AFP / Reuters