Melbourne - Jelena Jankovic was forced to step lively on court at the Australian Open Monday as the soles of her new shoes failed to protect her feet from the Melbourne heat.

"My feet were burning," said the Serbian top seed, who reached the second round over Austrian Yvonne Meusburger 6-1, 6-3.

"The soles of my shoes got so hot.

"During the changeovers I was putting my feet on ice, trying to cool them down."

The 23-year-old is wearing a new and unknown clothing and shoe brand after splitting with Reebok.

The Chinese firm of ANTA has surely struck gold in its first high- profile signing by grabbing the world number one.

"I have a new dress on the court. I like the green. It's bright, comfortable to wear and it looks feminine," Jankovic said.

"I also like my shoes," she quickly added.

Jankovic, like Maria Sharapova and the Williams sisters, has a hand in designing her look.

"In the future I will be working with a designing team and I will have my own dresses and a whole range of clothes with my name on it. So it's quite cool. I'm happy, really happy, about it."

But the shoes may have to go back to the drawing board.

"I will tell them to put some air conditioning in there," the smiling Serb quipped.

"With technology growing and getting better, I believe in the future we will have these kind of things, too. It would be nice."

But Jankovic also credited a steamy summer day with contributing to the problem.

"Every year when I come here, the weather goes over 30, almost to 40 degrees. The court gets so hot.

"It's normal that the soles of the shoes will get hot as well; especially moving, from the friction, it gets warmer and warmer.

"The soles of my shoes were like fire. You can only ice a little bit in the changeovers. That's basically it. What can I do?" (dpa)