It took just over an hour for top seed Serena Williams to dispatch the Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck 6-0, 6-4 in her Australian Open first-round tie.

Indeed, it was a good evening Down Under for the Williams sisters, with Venus beating the Spaniard Maria Torro-Flor for the loss of just four games.

Also safely through to round two are Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki and Sam Stosur.

Men's top seed Novak Djokovic won through to the second round without incident, beating Slovenia's Aljaz Bedene in straight sets.

Defending champion Stan Wawrinka is also safely through to round two, winning in straights as well against Turkey's Marsel Ilhan.

#Serena's bid for SIX #ausopen titles is off to a flying start, she downs Alison Van Uytvanck 6-0 6-4 #ausopen pic.twitter.com/BPwWFNCIKd

— Australian Open (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2015