Nerves on show as Murray falls

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The prizefighters of tennis punched their way out of trouble at the Australian Open on Monday but British hope Andy Murray was felled by a fierce right hand at Melbourne Park.

Serena Williams and Justine Henin fought off nerves and tricky conditions while Rafael Nadal survived an inspired opponent and Jelena Jankovic and Amelie Mauresmo clawed back from behind in first-round matches.

Murray, though, was helpless against French enigma Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The British ninth seed, fancied as an outsider for the title, weathered withering blows in the first set, his legs wobbled in the second and, after a gutsy fightback, was sent to the canvas in the fourth, beaten 7-5 6-4 0-6 7-6.

"Didn't start off great," was the 20-year-old Briton's verdict. "He dictated a lot of points early in the match. I made a few mistakes there I shouldn't have made."

Second seed Nadal struggled with the cool evening conditions and Viktor Troicki, a Serbian qualifier in his first grand slam.

World number 126 Troicki had a set point at 6-5 in the first set and led 4-2 in the second, but Nadal fought back strongly to advance with a 7-6 7-5 6-1 win.

Sixth seed Andy Roddick served his way to a thumping 6-3 6-4 7-5 win over Lukas Dlouhy but men's 11th seed Tommy Robredo belonged in the strugglers' camp, needing four hours to down Germany's Mischa Zverev 4-6 2-6 7-6 6-4 7-5.

Spanish 16th seed Carlos Moya was not quite so lucky, though, the 1997 runner-up losing 7-6 6-7 7-5 6-4 to Austrian Stefan Koubek, while 18th seed Juan Iganacio Chela also bit the dust.

The scorelines for Henin and Williams were emphatic but third-seeded Serb Jankovic endured an almighty ordeal before seeing off Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek.

Against Jankovic, three match points came and went for 17-year-old Paszek, who served for victory five times in a third set which included 15 breaks.

Experience told ultimately, however, with Jankovic winning 2-6 6-2 12-10 in three hours 10 minutes.

"I was praying actually," Jankovic told reporters.

"Please, God, help me get out of the situation. And I didn't want to go home, that was what was driving me, what was pushing me to go forward."

Serena needed just an hour to dispatch Australian wildcard Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3 6-3.

"I think everyone could probably tell I was a little scratchy," the champion smiled. "But it's the first round. I think I was a wee bit nervous out there."

WINNING RETURN

Top seed Henin also made a winning return to Melbourne Park but did not have it all her way against Japan's Aiko Nakamura.

The world number one missed last year's Australian Open as she was going through a divorce but it was business as usual on the opening day of the 2008 event with a 6-2 6-2 victory.

Henin failed with almost half her first serves, hit 26 unforced errors and will want to tighten her game up against Russia's Olga Poutchkova in the second round.

"Always the first round is not my favorite one, so I'm glad it's behind me now," Henin said.

"A grand slam, it's tough and it's long, and you need to be consistent, at your best all the time, so that's not very easy."

Former world number one Lindsay Davenport, in great form since returning last year following the birth of her first child, also struggled against Sara Errani before winning 6-2 3-6 7-5.

The American was not too upset about her performance, though, the victory making her the all-time career prize winning leader for women's sports with $21,897,501 (11.2 million pounds), passing Steffi Graf's 10-year record.

(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)