China's Li Na smiles during the first round match against Severine Bremond of France in the women's singles of Australian Open Tennis Tournament at Court 6 in Melbourne January 15, 2008. Li won the match 6-2,4-6, 6-4 Tuesday to sail into the second round. - Xinhua

Chinese seed Li Na pushed aside French rival Severine Bremond 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 yesterday to sail into the second round of the Australian Open.

Li, coming to the Grand Slam fresh from her Gold Coast victory, hit 31 winners as compared with 12 by her opponent.

"I really don't think the match was that easy for me," said Li, with ice bag around her right knee.

"I took the first set with ease which made me over relaxed and led to losing the second one," she said.

The 24th seed here will next meet Italian Maria Elena Camerin who eased past host player Christina Wheeler 6-1, 6-2 in another first round clash.

"Camerin is a tough opponent. She beat me once. She is very tenacious," Li said. Camerin overcame Li 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the round of 32 at Berlin Open claycourt event last year.

In an earlier match, Chinese Peng Shuai lost a three-hours-and-a-half thriller to Russian teenager Alisa Kleybanova 7-5, 4-6, 9-7.

"I don't know. I don't understand. I don't know why I lost," said the 22-year-old Peng.

"Actually I had a good winter training camp at the end of last year. I just can't bring out my best today. I can't feel my game. When I hit the ball, it responded in a weird way," she said.

Peng's Australian Open was not finished as the 22-year-old will be paired up with Sun Tiantian, winner of the Athens Olympics doubles title, to face the team consisting of Li and Russian singles sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze in the doubles opening round.

Arguably the most talented tennis player in China, Peng experienced injuries and falling out with the national team in 2006 which saw her world ranking slip from 31.

After patching things up with the national team, Peng was teamed up with Sun in their run for the Beijing Olympic Games.