Sania Mirza sailed past Uzbekistan’s Iroda Tulyaganova in straight sets to advance to the second round of the Australian Open here on Tuesday.

The 31st seed Indian beat Tulyaganova 6-4, 6-2 and will now take on Swiss Timea Bacsinszky, who beat Australian Sophie Ferguson 6-4, 6-3.

The 21-year-old, who has been battling injuries and off-court controversies, was rusty to start with as she asted a couple of break points and committed 11 unforced errors in the opener.

But Tulyaganova’s patchy form worked to Sania’s advantage and the Indian wrested the first set after a 40-minute see-saw battle.

Sania then showed some fine form in the second set, cutting down on her unforced errors besides breaking Tulyaganova twice.

Sania also did well to hold her serve and did not give away a single break point, outplaying Tulyaganova in just 29 minutes to advance to the second round of the season’s first Grand Slam.

If she gets past the second-round hurdle, Sania, who is placed in the third quarter of the draw, will have to brace up for a possible showdown with eighth seed American Venus Williams.

Federer through

Meanwhile, Roger Federer made a smooth start to his bid for a 13th Grand Slam title with a 6-0, 6-3, 6-0 win over Diego Hartfield.

The Swiss world number one and defending champion showed few signs of rust in brushing aside the Argentine, breezing through the first set without losing a game and clinching victory in 74 minutes.
Federer, seeking his fourth Australian Open title and third in a row, was playing his first match of the year and fell break point down in his opening service game.

A gentle breeze kept temperatures manageable throughout the day but men's third seed Novak Djokovic and Australia's Lleyton Hewitt turned up some heat of their own with barnstorming victories.
Hewitt, a former world number one seeded 19th here, beat Steve Darcis 6-0, 6-3, 6-0 and Djokovic swatted aside Benjamin Becker 6-0, 6-2, 7-6.

Djokovic oozed confidence in his opener, racing through the first seven games of the match and clinching the opening set in 22 minutes.

Becker, whose claim to fame is that he ended Andre Agassi's career by beating him at the 2006 US Open, had no answers in the second set either and, despite a rally in the third, offered little resistance to the Serb.
Djokovic, seeking his first grand slam title, plays Italian Simone Bolelli in the second round.

Venus advances

In women’s action, Venus Williams survived a strong rearguard action from Yan Zi of China before advancing to the second round with a 6-2, 7-5 win.

The Wimbledon champion led 5-2 in the second set only for world number 61 Yan to level at 5-5, but the American recovered her poise to clinch victory in 74 minutes.  Fourth seed Ana Ivanovic eased past Romania's Sorana Cirstea 7-5, 6-3 while second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova swept past France's Nathalie Dechy 6-3, 6-1 in just over an hour.

Sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze was spared the sapping sun when Germany's Andrea Petkovic retired with a knee injury in the first game of their match, while ninth seed Slovakian beauty Daniela Hantuchova beat American Vania King 6-3, 7-5.