MELBOURNE, Australia - Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt had little trouble winning in the first round of the Australian Open, starting their bids to stop Roger Federer from winning a third straight Grand Slam title.
Second-ranked Roddick spent a set figuring out how to handle left-handed Georgian Irakli Labadze before sweeping to a 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 win Tuesday. Hewitt got progressively more pumped in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 win over Arnaud Clement, his third win against the Frenchman in as many weeks.
Hewitt lost three times to Federer in majors last season, including the final of the U.S. Open, and also in the final at the season-ending Masters Cup. Federer won three Slams in 2004, including the year's last two: Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Despite losing his last six matches against Federer, Hewitt's record (7-8) is better against the 23-year-old Swiss star than Roddick's (1-8). Hewitt also leads Roddick 4-1.
Those are two stats Roddick is determined to rectify. He could meet Hewitt in the Australian Open semifinals and Federer in the final. Being wedged between Federer and No. 3 Hewitt is something Roddick doesn't like, not that he minds being just outside the spotlight.
"Obviously being in Lleyton's home country, that's not surprising," he said. "With Roger playing the way he has, he definitely deserves all the spotlight. But that's not something I'm really too concerned with right now.
"I just try to go business as usual. You know, I think people kind of around the game notice it a little bit more than I would."
Roddick decided his game had "plateaued" last season when he failed to add a major title to his breakthough win at the 2003 U.S. Open. So he split with coach Brad Gilbert and joined up with the more low-key Dean Goldfine, a U.S. Davis Cup and Olympic coach.
It hasn't been a long partnership, but the chemistry and the different work ethic are helping Roddick's progress.
"I feel that way, and obviously time will tell," he said. "I mean, let's be honest, it's been a month. So, you know, if you could completely overhaul a guy who is (No.) 2 in the world in a month and make him improve a lot, then I got a great deal, didn't I?
"But that's the goal."
On the women's side, top-ranked Lindsay Davenport had to reset her goals after considering quitting last season.
But she played superbly on the summer hard-court circuit to return to No. 1 and, in a wide open draw, believes she can win her fourth Slam title - and first since the 2000 Australian Open.
If her start was any indication, she's over a nagging knee problem and a bout of bronchitis that limited her preparation for Melbourne Park.
A potentially tough first-round match against 1994 Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, who'd beaten her six times at majors, turned into a mismatch. Davenport won 6-1, 6-1 in 48 minutes, tying their head-to-head record at eight-all and leaving Martinez looking more like the player who started the tournament with an illness.
The 32-year-old Spaniard won only seven points in the second set.
"She's given me a lot of fits early in my career," Davenport said. "It's so odd - there's not many people that I could play in the first round that I don't have a winning record against."
Venus Williams, who won the last of her four majors at the U.S. Open in 2001, defeated Eleni Daniilidou Greece 6-1, 7-5. Williams had 17 winners and 26 unforced errors.
"I didn't have the best rhythm ... but I played OK, I think, when it really mattered," the eighth-seeded Williams said. "At the five-all games, I really picked up. I think it was good for me to get to that because then I was able to play better."
French Open champion Anastasia Myskina had only four errors in the first set but lost her last three service games in a 6-1, 6-4 defeat of Kveta Peschke. She joined Russia's two other Grand Slam titlists - Wimbledon winner Maria Sharapova and U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova - in the second round.
Joining her compatriots was sixth-seeded Elena Dementieva, the runner-up at the French Open and U.S. Open.
Sharapova and Kuznetsova are back in action today, although Kuznetsova was busy off the court dealing with a doping charge.She joined WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott in a sharp rebuke of Belgian regional sports minister Claude Eerdekens, who announced that the Russian player tested positive for the stimulant ephedrine during a charity event last month.
While the common ingredient in cold medicine is on the banned list during competition, it's not off-limits during the offseason.
"I pride myself on being a clean athlete of the highest integrity and am offended by these disgraceful allegations," said Kuznetsova, who passed at least 11 doping tests last season.
Scott called the announcement "premature, highly irresponsible and damaging to the sport," and said he doubts Kuznetsova will be penalized.On Tuesday, Eerdekens defended his decision to identify Kuznetsova, even though a backup test hasn't been done and other steps in tennis' anti-doping rules weren't followed.
"I did my duty. All of my duty," Eerdekens told The Associated Press in an interview in Belgium. "International tennis should be happy that we try to show that tennis is a clean sport."
