Serena Williams sails into Australian Open second round

The 23-time Major champion Serena Williams is through to the second round at the Australian Open, defeating Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-1 in 56 minutes for an impressive start of the campaign.

The seven-time Australian Open winner dropped eight points behind the initial shot and controlled the action with 16 winners and 15 unforced errors. Siegemund was far from those numbers, breaking Serena once but suffering six breaks from nine chances offered to the American to end her run in the opening round.

Interestingly, Siegemund grabbed a break at 15 with a forehand return winner in the opening game before spraying a forehand error in game two to lose the advantage. Williams placed a backhand down the line winner in game three to take the lead and broke at 15 with a deep return to open a 3-1 gap. Serena landed an ace in game five to move further in front and broke for the third straight time to move closer to the set.

Serving at 5-1, the American fired a service winner to secure a set in 27 minutes, hoping for more of the same in the second. In the first game, she broke Laura with a backhand down the line winner and forced German's error to open a 3-0 gap. Serena rattled off the tenth straight game with an ace and moved over the top with another break at 5-1 to race into the second round.