Victoria Azarenka advances in Melbourne

Defending champion Victoria Azarenka has secured her passage into the second round of the Australian Open with a straight-sets win over Monica Niculescu.

A clash with the winner of Eleni Daniilidou and Karolina Pliskova now awaits the Belorussian, who needed just 87 minutes to progress on Rod Laver.

The first set was a non-event, as Azarenka punished Niculescu's poor serving to seal it 6-1.

The Romanian did not win a single point on her second serve, while Azarenka crushed her with some powerful ground strokes.

However, Niculescu improved dramatically in the second to make a contest of it, breaking Azarenka before holding for a 2-0 lead.

Her revival was short-lived, as Azarenka soon regained control and broke twice to serve for the match at 5-4.

Azarenka displayed more powerful hitting in closing out the match to progress safely into the next round.