Henin-Hardenne hands out lesson

World number one Justine Henin-Hardenne taught 15-year-old schoolgirl Olivia Lukaszewicz a harsh lesson about life in a Grand Slam – but not all the seeds were as impressive on the first day of the Australian Open.

Henin-Hardenne, the French and US Open champion, took just 45 minutes to whitewash the Australian world number 870 6-0 6-0 on Rod Laver Arena.

Lukaszewicz put up a plucky fight, earning herself six break points, but could not convert any as the top seed swept to victory and a second round clash with Camille Pin of France.

“That’s a good start, I played well last week and it gave me a lot of confidence. It was the first tournament where I was the number one player in the world, so that’s not easy to deal with,” said Henin-Hardenne.

Lukaszewicz was not overly downhearted about the defeat and vowed to “train my heart out” to get to Henin-Hardenne’s level.

“Just to play Justine on centre court was an experience in itself,” she said.

“I thought I fought hard, composed myself well and she was just too good on the day.”

While Henin-Hardenne, Amelie Mauresmo and Lindsay Davenport marched on, three of the women’s seeds stumbled.

Russian seventh seed Elena Dementieva was the highest to be eliminated, beaten 6-1 6-4 by rising Slovakian star Jelena Jankovic, the world number 79.

Dementieva was followed out by 10th seeded Russian Nadia Petrova, who lost to 20-year-old Hungarian Aniko Kapros 6-3 6-3 and Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn.

But Jankovic’s victory was the biggest surprise of the opening day at the season’s first Grand Slam and the 18-year-old described it as the finest of her career.

“It wasn’t easy. The first set I played well, I didn’t make many mistakes. I won it 6-1,” she said.

“Then she went to the bathroom and I cooled off and went down 3-0 in the second. Then I came back and was 4-3, 4-4, 5-4 and took the set.

“I’m happy with this win, it’s my first win over a top-10 player. It’s my biggest win for now.”

Jankovic won the junior title here in 2001 and reached the second round last year before losing to the experienced Amanda Coetzer in three sets.

Petrova, semi-finalist at the French Open, was beaten 6-3 6-3 by Kapros, while Tanasugarn (31) went down 6-1 6-3 to American Laura Granville.

Of the eight seeded Russians at the Australian Open this year, Vera Zvonereva (11), Elena Bovina (21) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (30) all progressed with varying degrees of trouble to the second round.

Bovina lost the first set to Sandra Kleinova of the Czech Republic but hit back to win 4-6 6-1 7-5.

Mauresmo, the fourth seed, beat Taipei’s Chia-Jung Chuang 6-1 6-0 while Davenport, who has been nursing a strained shoulder muscle, still managed to pull off a comfortable 6-2 6-3 win over Ruxandra Dramgomir Ilie of Romania.

Bulgarian Magdelena Maleeva breezed past American Samantha Reeves 6-1 6-0 to book a second-round meeting with Petra Mandula who overcame Gala Leon Garcia 6-4 4-6 6-4.