Serena is finding her form

The American admitted to being well short of top form in her first two matches of the new season but the world No 1 still managed to stroll effortlessly through them.

Serena Williams goes for a backhand return to Vera Dushevina during their quarter-final in Sydney.

Serena Williams admitted to being well short of top form in her first two matches of the new season but the world No 1 still managed to stroll effortlessly through them in a manner that suggests she will be extremely difficult to depose as Australian Open champion in the next two weeks.

The powerful American is preparing for her first grand slam since her shocking exit from Flushing Meadows in September when she verbally abused a baseline judge when on the brink of a semi-final defeat by the eventual champion Kim Clijsters. Having had a good rest since ending the 2009 campaign on a high by beating big sister Venus in the final of the WTA Tour championships in Doha in October, Serena is content to ease her way back into her groove at the Sydney International tournament.

"I definitely don't think I played my best, but that's comforting to know," said Serena, after comfortably disposing of Russian opponent Vera Dushevina 6-2, 6-2 in just more than an hour. "I'm just doing the best that I can now to get to where I want to be," added Serena who will face Aravane Rezai of France in the semi-finals. "Hopefully I have a long way to go, which I think is always good."

While Serena's prospects of making yet another grand slam final are again strong, Dinara Safina, the Russian she overwhelmed in last year's Australian Open final, continues along a rocky road. Safina, who irritated Serena for much of last year by depriving her of the No 1 ranking, was beaten 6-2, 6-3 in last night's concluding rain-delayed quarter-final by Russian compatriot Elena Dementieva, who will now face Victoria Azarenka in the other Sydney semi-final.

The Williams sisters will probably be more wary of the challenge presented by the two Belgian "comeback queens" Clijsters and Justine Henin than the rest of the Europeans in next week's Melbourne draw. Clijsters has earned a significant bonus for her victory over Henin in last weekend's Brisbane Invitational final. The latest WTA Tour rankings saw her rise from 18 to 15, meaning she will avoid an early meeting with any of the players ranked above her.

The men's line-up next week will be missing David Nalbandian. The Argentine's wretched luck with injuries continued when he strained abdominal muscles while warming up for his first match for eight months in Auckland yesterday. A distraught Nalbandian, who has fallen from world No 3 to 64 in the rankings after so many fitness problems, opted to make an early Melbourne withdrawal. There are no such concerns for Nalbandian's compatriot Juan Martin Del Potro who is oozing confidence about securing back-to-back grand slam titles after his epic conquest of Roger Federer in New York in September.

Del Potro and other staunch supporters of the Davis Cup will have taken great interest by a proposal from the ATP Players Council to replace their principal century-old team knockout competition with a less demanding World Cup. The world No 3 Novak Djokovic, who sat on the panel with Federer and Nadal, disclosed: "We didn't decide to put anything in official terms because we have to consider other sides as well, you know.

"But the main point is that we are trying to make the sport improve and get better, and players are most important." @Email:[e-mail]