Novak Djokovic moved into the third round of the Australian Open after a routine victory over Leonardo Mayer. The defending champion was in irresistible form early on and appeared keen to seal a quick success in the scorching Melbourne heat by winning the opening eight games of the match. While world number 98 Mayer did at least improve thereafter, he never threatened an upset and failed to earn a single break point as Djokovic completed a 6-0 6-4 6-4 win in 107 minutes. Djokovic, who is bidding to become the second man after Roy Emerson to win four straight titles here, came storming out of the blocks. The second seed, under the watchful gaze of new coach Boris Becker, broke at the first opportunity and it quickly became apparent there would be few alarms. Indeed, the greatest concern came when Djokovic fell going for a volley, but the 26-year-old did not appear to be in any distress as he 'bagelled' Mayer inside 22 minutes. Djokovic immediately secured his fourth break of the match at the start of the second set and although Mayer managed to stop the rot on his next service game, he could not make any impact on his opponent's serve and duly found himself two sets down. Mayer held his own in the final set and had not faced a single break point as he went 4-3 in front. But Djokovic showed his experience by attacking Mayer's next service game and the Argentinian double faulted at the wrong time to give the six-time grand slam champion the chance to serve for the match. Djokovic wrapped up victory at the second attempt when Mayer put a forehand long to set up a clash with Denis Istomin who knocked out 30th seed Dmitry Tursunov.
Women's top seed Serena Williams showed she was in no mood to hang around in the scorching after racing into the third round. With the temperature touching 40C, 17-time grand slam champion Williams brushed aside the challenge of world number 104 Vesna Dolonc with minimal fuss. Russian-born Serbian Dolonc did excite the crowd on occasion, but those moments were too infrequent and Williams wasted little time in sealing a 6-1 6-2 win in 63 minutes. She quickly took a 3-0 lead in the opening set after clinically breaking Dolonc in the second game when the 24-year-old hit a backhand long. It was clear that Williams had no intention of hanging around in the searing heat as she continued to attack her opponent's serve, but a rash of errors saw the American squander two more break points and allowed Dolonc to get on the scoreboard. That was as good as it got for the underdog, though, who gave up another break of serve before Williams, despite struggling while serving into the sun, wrapped up the first set at the second attempt after just under half an hour. Dolonc, who beat Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena in the first round, was immediately broken at the start of the second set and conceded another break of serve in the fifth game after three consecutive double faults. Williams almost surrendered her serve but saved the only break point she faced with an ace before going on to seal victory.
