MELBOURNE, Australia - Several Grand Slam doubles titlists took the court on an upset-free opening day of doubles play at the Australian Open on Wednesday, including No.2 seeds and reigning US Open champions Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond.
Huber and Raymond recorded the most convincing win of the favorites, a 63 61 defeat of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The Americans, each a titlist here once with other partners, are now 14-2 together in majors and next take on Alexandra Dulgheru and Virginie Razzano.
"Happy to get that first round win today against a dangerous team," tweeted Raymond, who was victorious here in 2000 alongside Rennae Stubbs.
Third-seeded Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova were pushed but advanced, as they always seem to do at Grand Slams. Their 16 63 61 triumph over Kristina Barrois and Anna-Lena Groenefeld made the 2010 Wimbledon and US Open champs 23-3 at majors, compared to 30-17 elsewhere.
"Had a nice first match with Slava. As usual, we had lots of fun," King tweeted.
Defending French Open champions and No.7 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, who kicked off their season with their sixth career title in Auckland two weeks ago, beat Magdalena Rybarikova and Klara Zakopalova, 62 75. Other seeds moving on were No.5 seeds Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova, No.9 seeds Natalie Grandin and Vladimira Uhlirova, No.10 seeds Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, No.11 seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci and No.16 seeds Vera Dushevina and Shahar Peer. Errani and Vinci only lost 13 points in their 34-minute double bagel rout of Tammi Patterson and Storm Sanders.
Among the teams in action Thursday are reigning Wimbledon champs and No.1 seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik and last year's Australian Open titlists - No.4 seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta.
