MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Top-ranked Roger Federer ripped 54 winners past Fabrice Santoro on Monday, opening his Australian Open title defense with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 victory.

Federer won all 12 points in the first three games and lost just three points as he raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set, getting all but one of his first serves into play in his first three service games.

The 23-year-old Swiss star won 11 titles last season, including the Australian and U.S. Opens, Wimbledon and the season-ending Masters Cup. He extended his winning streak to 22 consecutive matches – excluding last week’s exhibition tournament at Kooyong. Federer said he felt the same pressure defending his first Australian title as he did at Wimbledon last year, when he defended a major for the first time.

“Yes, same pressure here. I was nervous going into today’s match,” he said. “I won the first 12 points, so it was a perfect start. I’m sorry for Fabrice.” In women’s first-round matches, Serena Williams had more trouble with her shoes than she did with Camille Pin, winning 6-1, 6-1 in the opening match on center court.

Williams, who completed a “Serena Slam” with a victory at Melbourne in 2003 but missed last year’s first Grand Slam due to an injured knee, mixed 27 winners with 22 unforced errors.

The seventh-seeded Williams hit some brutal backhand winners and kept the 23-year-old Pin scrambling just to stay in points.

Williams did a lot of running early, winning nine net approaches and producing seven winners before her right shoe fell off at deuce in the second game and skidded behind the baseline.

Williams laced up the shoe and won the point when it was replayed. She spent time between games tying and retying her shoelaces, but otherwise didn’t have any problems.

Pin hit just one clean winner in each set and didn’t hold serve in the match.

U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova beat American Jessica Kirkland 6-1, 6-1 in 43 minutes, Columbia’s Fabiola Zuluaga, seeded 17th, beat Tunisia’s Selima Sfar 6-3, 7-5, and Slovakia’s Martina Sucha upset Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, the 16th seed, 7-5, 6-4.

India’s Sania Mirza beat Australia’s Cindy Watson 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.

The fifth-seeded Kuznetsova hit 22 winners and five aces. Kirkland had five doubles faults, 14 unforced errors and just two winners.

Andre Agassi is to play German qualifier Dieter Kindlmann later Monday despite a hip injury that forced him to quit an exhibition match against second-ranked Andy Roddick leading up to this tournament.

Agassi, a four-time winner of the Australian Open, said the small tear in a tendon in his right hip didn’t trouble him too much after a weekend match against Tim Henman.

Seeded players already through in the men’s draw included Dominik Hrbaty (20) and Ivan Ljubicic (22).

Santoro, who has twice beaten Federer on hard courts, was a tricky first-round opponent for the defending champ because of his reliance on spin and slice.

But he struggled with an upset stomach after an injection for a wrist problem, and even took a big gulp of warm soda when he was down 4-1 in the second to try and get a boost. It didn’t work.

Federer had 22 forehand winners and won 39 of his 51 net approaches.

AP-ES-01-16-05 2236EST