Melbourne, Australia — Jennifer Capriati began defense of her Australian Open championship with precision shotmaking that made short work of Silvija Talaja.
Capriati won 6-4, 6-1 in slightly more than an hour today. She finished by blasting a forehand serve return that rocked Talaja back on her heels. Then Capraiti put her away with an easy forehand.
Capriati became No. 1 in the rankings after Lindsay Davenport recently injured her knee.
"I like the feeling and I want to try to keep it for a while, and set a new goal for myself and a new challenge and take myself to a new level in my career," Capriati said.
Pete Sampras, a winner of 13 Grand Slam titles, started with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.
In other women's matches, No. 6 Justine Henin, runner-up at Wimbledon last year and a semifinalist at the French Open, mixed her power with accurate lobs in beating Anna Kournikova 6-2, 7-5.
On the men's side, Jan-Michael Gambill lost for the fifth consecutive year in the Australian Open's first round 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (6) to Wayne Ferreira.
No. 11 Roger Federer won 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 against Michael Chang.
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