Top seed Jelena Jankovic, third seed Dinara Safina and fifth seed Ana Ivanovic all reached the third round.
World No.1 overcomes battling Flipkens
Top seed Jelena Jankovic came through the first serious test of her Australian Open title credentials as she beat Kirsten Flipkens.
World No.1 Jankovic had wasted little time in seeing off the challenge of Yvonne Meusburger in the first round - however Flipkens made her work all the way for her 6-4 7-5 victory.
Flipkens, a former junior world No.1, was broken in the fifth game of the first set - however she hit straight back.
Jankovic, though, broke again a game later before holding her own serve to make sure of the set.
Flipkens came out fighting in the second set and opened up a 3-1 lead, only for Jankovic to break her twice more.
However, with both players struggling to hold their serve, Flipkens moved back into a 5-4 advantage.
With the set in the balance, Jankovic moved through the gears to fire off three games in a row to seal the match.
The 23-year-old will now face 26th-seeded Ai Sugiyama in the third round.
Errors
Jankovic will be joined in the third round by fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic, who defeated Italian qualifier Alberta Brianti 6-3 6-2.
It was a mixed performance from the fifth seed who hit 26 winners but committed the same number of unforced errors in the match on the Rod Laver Arena.
Ivanovic, who made a slow start against Julia Goerges before winning her first-round tie 7-5 6-3, got an early breakthrough in the opening match of day three when Brianti double-faulted to hand her a 3-1 lead.
But a poor service game, in which she double-faulted three times, allowed her opponent to break back immediately.
That seemed to kick-start Ivanovic who breezed through the next game to take a 4-2 lead.
Ivanovic, last year's beaten finalist, sealed the first set when the Italian, ranked 169 in the world, fired a backhand into the net.
Ivanovic broke twice to take a 3-0 lead at the start of the second set but her momentum was halted when Brianti called for a medical time-out to get some treatment to her back.
It clearly affected the Serbian who was broken in the next game and although Brianti held her next service game she was no match for her more illustrious opponent, who won the next three games to take the set and the match.
Safina survives
Third seed Dinara Safina recovered from a poor start to also book her place in the third round with a 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-0 win over fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
Safina, bidding for a maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne, surrendered the first set in a tie-break despite battling back from 5-1 down.
And it was not until midway through the second set that Safina finally took control, reeling off nine games in a row to close out victory.
"After I lost the first set, I really played my game," she said. "I really stepped in and I was going for my shots. I think I played a good match today.
"I had a slow start. I think I played poorly until 5-1, I didn't do anything. I was waiting for her mistakes.
"I played a poor tie-break but once I lost it, I was like, 'if I don't change, I'll go home.'"
Seeds dominate
Vera Zvonareva, the seventh seed, had a far easier time of it in her match, thumping Edina Gallovits 6-0 6-0. She will now play Sara Errani, who beat Monica Niculescu.
Alize Cornet, the 15th seed, conceded only one game on her way to a 6-1 6-0 thrashing of Andrea Petkovic.
She will meet Daniela Hantuchova following the Slovakian's three-set win against Matilde Johansson.
Other seeds to progress on Wednesday were Nadia Petrova (10), Caroline Wozniacki (11), Marion Bartoli (16) and Kaia Kanepi (25).
But 17th seed Anna Chakvetadze went down 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 to wild card Jelena Dokic, who plays Wozniacki next.
