Li Na and Williams ease through whilst Dellacqua causes an upset

 Li Na came through her second round match after a very close second set. Facing Belinda Bencic who has many people predicting great things in the future for the youngster, Li Na charged to a 6-0 lead, taking the first set in only 22 minuets. Thankfully for Bencic and the crowd watching, in the second set things was a lot more even. Bencic did break Li in the second set to a couple times however experience told and the 3rd seed immediately broke back both times. The Swiss youngster was able to hold her serve for the rest of the set to force it to a tie break. Li then regained control of the tie break to take it 7-4, giving her the match.During the match 30 winners were produced by Li Na as well as 31 unforced errors compared to Bencic's 12 winners and 19 unforced errors.

It was unsurprisingly a more easier day for bookies favourite Serena Williams who raced to a 61 62 win over Vesna Dolonc. During the 63 minuet match, William's won 66% of her first serve as well as firing 10 aces. After the match when asked about the blistering heat, Williams didn't seemed that bothered by it. Quoting skysports.co.uk she said:-

“I have been training for a long, long time in the heat in Florida and I have been coming to Melbourne for years and years”
"So you just have to be ready for those hot conditions and just try to get through it.

"I think the conditions today in my match was OK. I wasn't here yesterday. I heard they were a little bit extreme (but) I didn't really even go outside yesterday. For my match today, it was OK to play."

Another very easy win was by Sam Stosur who enjoyed a 62 60 win over last weeks shock WTA Sydney champion Tsvetana Pironkova. Going in to this match, a lot of people was expecting the Bulgarian to give Stosur a tough match but it just never happened. In the 67 minute match, Stosur produced 23 winners (compared to Pironkova's 5) and won 83% of her first serve points. Awaiting Stosur in the third round is Anna Ivanovic after her almost identical scoreline (61 62) over Annika Beck. The pair have met on seven previous occasions with Stosur having a 4-3 lead with all of Stosur's wins being on a hardcourt surface.

Two seeds went out in today’s action. Casey Dellacqua created joy for her home audience with a dominating 63 60 dismissal of 18^th seed Kirsten Klipkens. Flipkens's serve was one of the reasons for her poor result today as she produced only 48% of first serves in, winning just over half of them. This combined with a error count of 29 didn't make it a good day at the office for the Belgian. Saying that, nothing should be taken away from the former world 39 Dellacqua, who remained supreme throughout. The other seed to fall was Sabine Lisicki who after a solid first set came undone at the hands of Romania's Monica Niculescu. Lisicki, last years Wimbledon finalist, admitted after her match that the sweltering heat did get to her. The best example of this was Lisicki's first serve percentage in the 3 sets. In the first set in which she won was 63% followed by 53% in the second and then a dismal 38% in the third set. 

 

Other wins from today included rising Canadian Star Eugenie Bouchard who battled past a extremely close second set tie break to beat 30 year old Virginie Razzano 62 76 (12-10). In the longest women's match of the day 31^st seed Daniela Hantuchova battled to victory over Karolina Pliskova in a epic match lasting over 3 hours. The final scoreline was 63 36 12-10. Finally Angelique Kerber beat Alla Kudryavtseva 64 62.