Motivated Serena passes Bencic test

Serena Williams breathed a sigh of relief after seeing off Belinda Bencic to reach the second round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Improving her phenomenal first-round record at grand slams to 66 wins and one defeat, Williams outclassed the highly rated Swiss teenager 6-4 6-3 in one hour, 19 minutes on Tuesday.

The six-time champion wobbled trying to close out the match, losing three successive games from 3-0 in the second set, before advancing.

“She’s such a great player. She was just recently in the top 10 so she’s been playing great,” the second seed said.

“It was one of the toughest first-round matches I’ve played so I knew I had to come out strong.

“I just wasn’t as aggressive as I was during those games and she started playing better.

“I made a few errors on some key points but, for the most part, I still was going for everything and I was able to close it out.”

After dropping to 59th in the rankings after an injury-plagued 2016 season, Bencic loomed as the most dangerous unseeded woman in the draw.

But the 19-year-old admitted she was no match for the 22-time major winner.

“I was definitely not disappointed of how I played. I knew that I played good. But obviously it’s not enough against Serena,” Bencic said.

“It’s not enough to play just, like, not bad, so you really have to bring the best. I mean, I tried today, but it was not enough.”

Williams next plays Czech Lucie Safarova on Thursday in a rematch of their 2015 French Open final.

At 35, Williams plans to continue to free-roll in her quest to catch Margaret Court’s record 24 grand slam singles titles.

“Right now I have nothing to lose. Every match, every point, I’m playing for fun,” Williams said.

“I get to travel the world and play in these great areas so it’s self motivating.”

Safarova earlier survived nine match points in her opener against Yanina Wickmayer, the Czech left-hander finally progressing 3-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-1.