Australian Open 2012 Results: Wozniacki and Clijsters Foreshadow What Is to Come

Caroline Wozniacki and Kim Clijsters are two of the favorites at the 2012 Australian Open.

But Wozniacki, the No. 1 seed, and Clijsters, the No. 11 seed, are already showing the type of form we expected.

The Danish No. 1 seed is a talented young player who has yet to capture her first Grand Slam. However, still held the top spot for all but one week last year.

Her second round performance is great representation of why.

Wozniacki dominated the first set 6-1, but struggled and had to rally down 4-1 to eventually win 7-6 (4). The resiliency is certainly commendable, but she was facing Anna Tatishvili, not the defending champion Clijsters or Serena Williams or Li Na or Victoria Azarenka.

Clijsters, meanwhile, needed all of 47 minutes to dispatch her opponent and showed no ill effects of her injury at all.

The Belgian defending champion has a much more difficult road to the finals than Wozniacki does, but she's already playing great tennis and is only going to raise her game.

She'll take on Daniela Hantuchova in the third round and likely face her challenger last year in the finals, Li Na, in the fourth round.

But Clijsters is very much at home in Melbourne and, like Serena Williams, is a dangerous threat to the top seeds.

Wozniacki needs to reach at least the quarterfinals to have a chance at keeping her No. 1 ranking. If she doesn't pull it back together she'll be worrying about that sooner rather than later.

As for Clijsters, she'll have to be on form from here on out and that actually bodes well for her.

It certainly wouldn't be surprising to see the defending champ advance further than the current No. 1.