MOSCOW, January 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's ladies enjoyed mixed fortunes in the first round of the doubles tournament at the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam series event of the 2006 tennis season.

On the fourth day of the tournament, seeded 13, Russians Anastasia Myskina and Dinara Safina, beat Czech-Russian pairing Zuzana Ondraskova and Yekaterina Bychkova in straight sets 6:4, 6:3.

Russia's Vera Zvonareva and Yelena Likhovtseva also made it through to the second round after defeating Australian duo Beti Sekulovski and Cindy Watson 6:2, 6:3.

Former U.S. Open Champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and top French player Amelie Mauresmo enjoyed an easy straight sets victory over Sania Mirza from India and Corina Morariu from the United States (6:2, 6:1).

Russia's Maria Kirilenko and Argentina's Gisela Dulko also had an easy first round victory against Israel's Anna Smashnova and Madagascar's Dally Randriantefy (6:2, 6:3), while high-profile casualty in the singles Yelena Dementyeva and Italy's Flavia Pennetta defeated American pairing Laura Granville and Abigail Spears 6:7 (3:7), 7:5, 6:0.

However, Yevgenia Linetskaya and Galina Voskoboyeva saw their double's tournament come to an end after suffering a crushing 1:6, 0:6 defeat at the hands of China's Zi Yan and Jie Zheng.

Mixed French-Australian double Emilie Loit and Nicole Pratt also beat another Russian pairing of Anna Chakvetadze and Yelena Vesnina, winning in three sets 6:3, 0:6, 6:1.