Williams and Hewitt are stretched to the limit

The two top seeds at the Australian Open struggled to survive yesterday, with Serena Williams nearly following Jennifer Capriati out in the first round and Lleyton Hewitt taken to five sets by a qualifier.

Williams, who bounced into Melbourne Park with the aim of adding a fourth consecutive grand slam to her collection, put on a bad-tempered, error-strewn performance against Emilie Loit of France. Three points from defeat in the second set, she recovered only sufficiently to squeeze a 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 victory.

The No 1 seed, who was fined for an "audible obscenity", said: "I don't know where I was today. I made too many errors, I didn't attack, I wasn't looking at the ball. I had a bad day and I'm just happy that I was able to pull through."

Playing in a bizarre orange and white outfit over a sports bra encrusted with rhinestones, the 21-year-old Californian allowed an inspired Loit, ranked No 36, to break her serve in the third and seventh games.

The Wimbledon, US and French Open title-holder, who sent a tournament official to collect her black Prada handbag containing anti-inflammatory drugs for a knee problem, broke back once, but could not prevent the 23-year-old Frenchwoman from taking the set.

Loit, who has never won a tournament, kept up the pressure as the American pumped her fist, screamed abuse at her opponent and remonstrated with herself, none of which had any discernible impact on her game. Loit forced the second set to a tie-break, but then appeared to lose her nerve, allowing Williams to scrape through to a third set.

The top seed continued to play erratically as her sister, Venus, bit her nails in the stands and her mother, Oracene, held her head in her hands. The Frenchwoman saved two match points in a brilliant display of sangfroid, and it was not until two games later that Williams finally clinched victory.

Her performance, which included 55 unforced errors, made her stated aim of going through 2003 undefeated appear wildly extravagant. Similarly, talk of a "Serena Slam" – her term for holding all four titles at once – appears premature.

Williams cheered up when asked about her off-one-shoulder outfit, confiding that she had personally soldered the rhinestones to her bra strap. "It's my design, and I'm really excited about it," she said. And no, they were not real diamonds, because "one might fall off, and jeez, a lady never wants to lose a diamond".

Hewitt fought for more than three hours to achieve his 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7, 6-2 defeat of Sweden's Magnus Larsson and avoid the humiliation of a second consecutive first-round loss at his home major.

Last year the 21-year-old Australian, weakened by chickenpox, was knocked out in the first round. This time the world No 1 had no such excuse and he described the encounter with Larsson – a former top 10 player now ranked 155th in the world – as "a wake-up call".

Hewitt, who won Wimbledon last year and the US Open in 2001, has never progressed beyond the fourth round at Melbourne Park. But he covets the Australian Open title most, and his countrymen are willing him to break the drought of 27 years since an Australian – Mark Edmondson – last triumphed here.

He comfortably won the first set, but Larsson unexpectedly took the second after breaking serve for the only time in the match.

Hewitt appeared to be back on track after the third, but the 32-year-old Swede fought back to win the fourth set tie-break 7-3.

By this time, the pressure was showing on Hewitt, who questioned numerous line calls and even – astonishingly – changed his shoes halfway through the fourth set while serving at 3-4 and 15-30.

Finally, to the great relief of the crowd, Hewitt was able to regain control of the match, breaking Larsson's serve twice in the fifth set before securing victory on his third match point.

A visibly relieved Hewitt said: "It left a sour taste in my mouth when I lost in the first round last year and I wanted to come out here and get rid of it." He even suggested the match boded well. "Somewhere along the line of a grand slam, most guys have a scare and they're the ones that go on to win."

There were easy wins yesterday for Kim Clijsters, the No 4 seed, Monica Seles, the No 6, and Mary Pierce, the former Australian Open champion.

Roger Federer of Switzerland, the No 6 seed, beat Brazil's Flavio Saretta, while Marat Safin, the No 3, took four sets to overcome Raemon Sluiter.

Richard Gasquet, the 16-year-old French prodigy, took a set off Russia's Mikhail Youzhny before losing 3-6, 6-0, 6-1, 6-4. He said he ran out of steam during the match and his serve deserted him.