Serena, Henin, Nadal to head play on show courts
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Women's champion Serena Williams, world number one Justine Henin and men's number two Rafael Nadal head the order of play on the main show court on the first day of the Australian Open on Monday.
Williams, the seventh seed, will meet Australian wildcard Jarmila Gajdosova as the curtain-raiser match on Rod Laver Arena before Henin meets Aiko Nakamura of Japan.
Britain's world number nine Andy Murray ends the day session of matches with his clash against France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, while Nadal will close the day's play with his match against Serbian qualifier Viktor Troicki.
Last year's beaten finalist Maria Sharapova and world number six Andy Roddick headline the day's action on the Vodafone Arena.
Sharapova will met Croatia's Jelena Kostanic Tosic, while Roddick, who won his third successive Kooyong Classic with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Cyprus's Marcos Baghdatis on Saturday, will meet qualifier Lukas Dlouhy from the Czech Republic.
Women's number three Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and men's number eight Richard Gasquet of France will also play their first round matches on the second show court.
Jankovic, who enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2007, which saw her finish the year ranked in the top-10 for the first time, will meet Austria's Tamira Paszek.
Gasquet is up against local wildcard Nick Lindahl who is making his senior Australian Open main draw debut.
(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
