MELBOURNE, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Second seed Iga Swiatek opened her Australian Open campaign with a hard-fought first round victory on Monday.

Swiatek beat Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 21 minutes to maintain her perfect record of winning every first round match she has ever played at the Australian Open.

The Polish star was forced to work hard for the victory against the 28-year-old Siniakova, who is a nine-time Grand Slam champion in the women's doubles, with a strong showing on first serve proving decisive in the match.

Swiatek made 71 percent of her first serves for the match, with an average speed of 168 km/h, and won 79 percent of her first serve points. By comparison, Siniakova landed 60 percent of her first serves in and won 56 percent of first serve points.

Siniakova - ranked 50th in the world - hit two more winners for the match than Swiatek but also eight more unforced errors.

"For sure it wasn't an easy first round, so I'm happy that I'm through," Swiatek said. "She was playing really well and I just needed to be more proactive and in the second set I did that, so I was happy."

The first five games of the match went to serve before three straight games helped Swiatek to a 5-3 lead and then she served out the opening set.

She held the momentum to take a 2-0 lead in the second set and looked likely to cruise to victory from there until Siniakova fought back and took a 3-2 lead. Swiatek responded by elevating her play to a new level and was able to close out the match.

A sixth Grand Slam title at Melbourne Park would see Swiatek reclaim the No. 1 ranking, which she has previously held for 75 consecutive weeks between 2022 and 2023 and again from the end of 2023 until October 2024.

She will play Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia in the second round, while Siniakova's attention will shift to the women's doubles where she and Taylor Townsend of the United States are the top seeds. Enditem

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