Rarely do Serena and Venus Williams step onto the court without an air of purpose about them.
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And although Margaret Court Arena may not be as significant a stage as Melbourne Park’s centre court, the No.2 seeds were no less hungry to open their women's doubles title defence with a win in front of a packed house.
Sadly, their Australian opponents Jess Moore and Sophie Ferguson were poorly matched against a pairing with 10 Grand Slam doubles titles – not to mention a few in singles as well.
The only real threat to the Williams sisters was Serena’s serve, with two double faults responsible for one of the two games they dropped during the match.
The packed crowd tried their best to lift the locals, but ultimately were left clutching at straws as Moore and Ferguson succumbed 6-1 6-1.
Luckily, there are still a number of Australians left in the draw – not to mention many of the top women in the game.
Unseeded duo Victoria Azarenka and Svetlana Kuznetsova play together for the first time at this year’s Open, as will fellow top-20 players Sam Stosur and Nadia Petrova.
Kuznetsova and Stosur have both achieved success in Grand Slam doubles, and will be hoping their campaigns extended well into the second week of the tournament in both the individual and team disciplines.
Cara Black and Liezel Huber return to Melbourne Park as top seeds once again in 2010, although it’s hard to believe the pairing haven’t won a major together since the 2008 US Open, with their best result last year coming when they were runners-up at Flushing Meadows.
No doubt the veteran Zimbabwean/American pairing will be keen to get back on the winners list, their previous triumphs together including four Grand Slams and two victories at the Sony Ericsson Tour Championships.
In perhaps the biggest off-season story, veterans Lisa Raymond and Australian Rennae Stubbs have decided to rekindle a partnership that netted 32 doubles titles on the WTA Tour – three of them Grand Slams – in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Between them, Stubbs and Raymond have 127 titles and countless weeks at No.1. They’re seeded sixth at Australian Open 2010, but will no doubt pose a significant threat to higher-ranked opponents.
Other major winners in the draw include China’s Zheng Jie, Australian hero and two-time champion Alicia Molik, and the Bondarenko sisters – champions at Melbourne Park in 2008.
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