Serena Williams of the United States returns the ball to Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova during their first-round singles match today at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia.

Melbourne, Australia ? The difference in 12 months was easy to see.

Serena Williams, wearing fuchsia bicycle shorts and headband, a short white dress and dangling, chandelier-inspired earrings, found her form quickly and beat Jarmila Gajdosova, 6-3, 6-3, today in the first match in the Australian Open.

Last year, Williams was unseeded, ranked 81st and coming off one of her worst losses on tour – in a Tier 4 event at Hobart – yet she beat six seeded players en route to the title at Melbourne Park. It was her eighth, and least expected, Grand Slam win.

Top-seeded Justine Henin, in her first match at Melbourne Park since retiring from the 2006 final against Amelie Mauresmo, won the last six games to beat Aiko Nakamura, 6-2, 6-2, her 29th consecutive win.

Third-seeded Jelena Jankovic saved three match points and needed 3 hours, 9 minutes to edge Austria’s Tamira Paszek, 2-6, 6-2, 12-10, at Vodafone Arena. The deciding set was four minutes shy of two hours, included 15 breaks of serve and an injury timeout for each player.

On the men’s side, second-ranked Rafael Nadal, the only player to beat Roger Federer at the last 10 Grand Slams – at the last two French Opens – plays Viktor Troicki of Serbia in the tonight’s late match on center court.

Federer has a Tuesday start after a disrupted buildup because of a stomach virus.

Sixth-seeded Andy Roddick faces Czech qualifier Lukas Dlouhy today, and No. 9 Andy Murray kicks off with a challenging opener against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France.