Clijsters wins 6-0, 6-0 at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Third-seeded Kim Clijsters didn't drop a game Tuesday in a first-round rout of former world No. 1 Dinara Safina at the Australian Open.

Lopsided wins popped up across Tuesday's play with the winners of nine matches dropping no more than three games and two losing only one in advancing to the second round.

But Clijsters posted the most eye-catching score. Safina was No. 1 in the world for 26 weeks in 2009 before back problems affected her play. She's currently ranked No. 75.

Clijsters' game has been picking up and it showed Tuesday in a 6-0, 6-0 romp that took 44 minutes. Clijsters won 76 percent of the points overall and lost only five points in six service games.

Vera Zvonareva, seeded second, also easily advanced, taking out Sybille Bammer 6-2, 6-1; No. 5-seeded Samantha Stosur topped Lauren Davis 6-1, 6-1; and seventh-seeded Jelena Jankovic got by Alla Kudryavtseva 6-0, 7-5 (7-5).

Also, No. 10 Shahar Peer breezed past Mathilde Johansson 6-1, 6-1; 12th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska escaped Kimiko Date Krumm 6-4, 4-6, 7-5; No. 13 Nadia Petrova topped Ksenia Pervak 6-2, 6-1; and 16th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Kirsten Flipkens 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).

There were two upsets Tuesday -- seeded women's players went 28-4 in the first round -- as Ekaterina Makarova beat 19-seeded Ana Ivanovic 3-6, 6-4, 10-8; and Ayumi Morita ousted No. 27 Alexandra Dulgheru 6-4, 6-4.

Other seeded players moving to the second round were 18th-seeded Maria Kirilenko, No. 22 Flavia Pennetta, 24th-seeded Alisa Kleybanova, N. 25 Petra Kvitova, 26th-seeded Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and 31st-seeded Lucie Safarova.