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Serena Williams keeps her cool Down Under, advances to 2nd round

JASON REED / Reuters

Although it was 36 degrees Celsius on Day 2 in Melbourne, second-seeded Serena Williams was as cool as a cucumber in securing her place in the second round.

In a match that had upset virtually etched on the card, Williams exerted a minimal amount of effort, beating 59th ranked Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-3 in just over an hour and a quarter of play.

Williams and Bencic were all tied up in head-to-head meetings before the match on Monday, as both women had tasted one victory each in their previous two encounters.

But Serena was on her A-game under the Australian sun and was able to replicate her first-round performance from 12 months ago, eliminating Bencic in the process.

The first set was an evenly contested affair that was tied at 4-4 before the second seed asserted some solid pressure from the baseline, resulting in a forehand error from Bencic on break point for Williams at 5-4.

That paved the way for Williams to claim the opening set 6-4.

The second set was a bit of a nail biter for the American.

After establishing a 3-0 lead, Williams seemed to smell blood in the water and she continued to move forward, dominating the majority of the second set rallies.

Significantly for Williams, she won 100 percent of points on her first serve (13) in the second set and, although she only had 6 aces to show for it, Bencic only got the chance to swing at one break point in the second set.

After 15 minutes of second set action, Williams led the set 5-0 and was in cruise control as she looked to close out the match.

Bencic was not about to go down without a fight though, and she showed some character to get back in the set at 3-5, before eventually losing a game on the Williams serve.

The runner up from 2016 saluted the crowd and met her opponent in the middle of the court to shake her hand and move on to the next round.

The Saginaw native will face 61st-seeded Lucie Safarova in the second round following the Czech's three-set victory over Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.

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