Serena Williams coasts into second round

MELBOURNE, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Defending champion American Serena Williams and her No. 6-seeded sister Venus dropped just seven games between them in first-round play at the Australian Open.

Serena Williams, the world's top-ranked women's player, ran past Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-1, facing one break point in the match. Williams had 27 unforced errors but also 26 winners in the victory.

Venus Williams was on the court just 72 minutes in a 6-2, 6-2 romp past Lucie Safarova. Williams had her serve broken once but more than offset that with five breaks in eight Safarova service games.

The Williams sisters, if both continue to win, would meet in the tournament semifinals.

Another American advanced when Vania King upset 23rd-seeded Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5.

Russian Ekaterina Makarova defeated No. 18-seeded Virginie Razzano 6-2, 6-3 and Croatian Karolina Sprem ousted No. 25-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues in Tuesday's other upsets in the women's draw.

Among seeded players, No. 8-seeded Serbia Jelena Jankovic posted a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Monica Niculescu and 10th-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska need just 52 minutes to dispatch Tatjana Malek 6-1, 6-0.

No. 11-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli swept by Rossana De Los Rios 6-4, 6-1; 13th-seeded Australian Samantha Stosur got past Xinyun Han 6-1, 3-6, 6-2; No. 17 Italian Francesca Schiavone rallied to win 0-6, 7-5, 6-0 over Alize Cornet; 19th-seeded Russia Nadia Petrova stopped Edina Gallovits 6-3, 6-4 and No. 20 Serb Ana Ivanovic topped Shenay Perry 6-2, 6-3.

Other seeded players who won Tuesday were 21st-seeded German Sabine Lisicki; No. 26 Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai; 31st-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko and 32nd-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro.