MELBOURNE, Australia - No.2-ranked Andy Roddick won his opening match at the Australian Open, and French Open champion and third seed Anastasia Myskina also advanced in a women's opener.
Roddick, seeking his second Grand Slam title after the 2003 U.S. Open, took 92 minutes to defeat Irakli Labadze 7-5, 6-2, 6-1. He made use of his powerful service by winning 85 percent of points on his first serve and will next face 48th-ranked Greg Rusedski of Britain, who beat Jonas Bjorkman.
"Rusedski is tough, he's got a big lefty serve and will be all over the net," said Roddick, a quarterfinalist at Melbourne Park for the past two years, in a televised courtside interview. "He makes life really uncomfortable because you don't see a lot of serve and volleyers any more."
Myskina beat Kveta Peschke 6-1, 6-4, racing through the first set in 20 minutes, helped by Peschke's 16 unforced errors. Myskina lost only two points in the first three games of the second set before trading service breaks in six consecutive games. During that stretch, Myskina loudly berated herself for missing opportunities, spiked her racket into the court and smacked a ball into the crowd.
Myskina, who served for the match at 5-3, won when Peschke dumped a forehand into the net. It was her 33rd unforced error of the set and 48th for the match. After only two unforced errors in the first seven games, Myskina had 14 in an erratic second set.
No. 10 Alicia Molik, winner at the Sydney International last week, mixed 28 winners with 29 unforced errors in a 6-1, 6-3 win over Anabel Medina Garrigues. Medina Garrigues fended off five match points on her serve before double-faulting on the sixth.
In other women's matches, Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova beat Akiko Morigami of Japan 6-4, 7-5, and Tathiana Garbin earned a 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) win over Marlene Weingartner, who made a splash when she beat then defending champion Jennifer Capriati in the first round of the 2003 Australian Open.
Argentina's Guillermo Coria, seeded sixth, and Guillermo Canas, seeded 12th, advanced in the men's draw, while No. 14 Sebastien Grosjean - a semifinalist here in 2001 and at Wimbledon last season - earned a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 win over fellow Frenchman Michael Llodra.
Fellow Argentine seeds Guillermo Canas and Juan Ignacio Chela also advanced, enforcing Argentina's emergence as a men's tennis force, with four players currently in the top 12 - more than any other country.
Kuznetsova: I'm clean
MELBOURNE, Australia - Svetlana Kuznetsova tested positive for the banned stimulant ephedrine during an offseason charity event, a Belgian sports minister said Monday, but WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott doubts the U.S. Open champion will be penalized.
The Russian was tested during a Dec. 18-19 exhibition tournament in Charleroi, said Claude Eerdekens, a regional sports minister. Kuznetsova's backup sample hasn't been tested; rules call for two positive samples before punishment.
Scott said he had tried without success to speak with Eerdekens and called the Belgian's announcement "premature, highly irresponsible and damaging to the sport. It's something that could possibly be a common cold remedy, and the player might be innocent. Yet he's gone ahead and publicly tainted the sport."
Kuznetsova, 19, is seeded fifth in the Australian Open and won her opening match.
"There is absolutely no reason why I would take a stimulant to enhance my performance at an out-of-competition exhibition match in the middle of the offseason," Kuznetsova said. "I pride myself on being a clean athlete of the highest integrity and am offended by these disgraceful allegations."
She noted she was tested 11 times last season.
Ephedrine is often contained in cold remedies. It also is used in weight-reducing formulas, and some athletes take it to get a short-term energy burst and to increase alertness.
