India's Sania Mirza sizzled under the blazing Melbourne sun Tuesday to book her place in the Australian Open second round but Asian number one Lee Hyung-Taik wilted and slumped out.

Mirza was joined by Japan's Aiko Nakamura, who upset Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, seeded 32, 64, 6-0.

The Indian teen is under pressure here after slipping down the rankings and answered her critics

with a 6-3, 7-5 mauling of Ukraine's Olga Savchuk.

She has had a solid build-up to the tournament, playing well at the Hopman Cup mixed team tournament in Perth and then the Hobart International, and is aiming for a decent run here.

"The first match of the first Grand Slam of the year both the players are a little tight going into the match," she said.

"I think I adapted to the conditions better, it was very hot out there, especially in the second set it got hotter.

"But I'm happy that I could come through the first match."

Play was suspended soon after Mirza, 19, came off court as tem-

peratures climbed to 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

"It felt like she was having a hard time out there, and I don't blame her, it was pretty hot," added Mirza, who is one Asia's top hopes here along with Japan's Ai Sugiyama and China's Li Na.

Sugiyama fought through to the second round on Monday while Li, seeded 19, makes her debut on Wednesday after her match against Elena Bovina of Russia was pushed back due to a pile-up of games from the heat stoppage.

While Mirza, who lives in Hyderabad which also gets burning hot, coped with the heat, South Korea's Lee meekly surrendered.

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Lee is the top ranked Asian man in Melbourne at 49 but failed to live up to expectations, going down 61, 6-2, 6-2 to Tomas Berdych, the 13th seed from the Czech Republic.

"He has a strong service and he is a good player. I did my best and I am a groundstroke player, but I couldn't get it going today, especially with my groundstrokes. That's why I lost to Berdych," said Lee.

"I didn't have any injury problems, he just overpowered me, simple as that.

"His movement was better than me and I couldn't handle his service."

Aside from Lee, Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan is already out, as is Japan's Go Soeda. But Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun remains alive, as does Thailand's Danai Udomchoke.

Two Chinese women -- Zheng

Jie and Sun Tiantian -- crashed out on Monday with the expectations of 1.3 billion Chinese now resting on Li, Peng Shuai and Meng Yuan.

Peng and Meng's matches suffered the same fate as Li's and will be played on Wednesday.

Li took world number five Kim Clijsters to three sets in their semifinal of last week's Sydney International and comes into the tournament keen to make up for her first-round loss to former champion Serena Williams here last year.

"This year I want to try my best because this year I am a seed," she said.

Florida-based Peng plays Andreja Klepac of Slovenia while the Hong Kong-based Meng takes on Ashley Harkleroad of the United States.

The other Asian in action Tuesday, Taiwan's Chan Yung-Jan, fell to Australia's Alicia Molik 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).