Vaidisova first female fined at Aus Open

Nicole Vaidisova became the first woman to be fined at this year's Australian Open on Friday, joining 18 men penalised for bad behaviour at the season's first Grand Slam.

The Czech received a $2,000 penalty from the International Tennis Federation for failing to appear at a news conference after her 6-2, 6-1 first round loss to Severine Bremond of France.

The former world number seven has slipped down the rankings after a poor 2008 and is now outside the top 50.

Russia's Dmitry Tursunov has copped the heftiest dent to his wallet in the first five days, being fined $500 for racket abuse and another $2,500 for verbal abuse.

Both fines stemmed from the 29th seed's first round loss to Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla.

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt received the next highest penalty after he received a $1,500 fine for verbal abuse in his first round defeat by Chile's Fernando Gonzalez.

The most prolific offender, however, has been American Ryan Sweeting, who lost in the final round of qualifying to Algeria's Lamine Ouahab. He received three separate fines totalling $1,000 for racket and verbal abuse.

The ITF has fined players a total of $12,250 so far, with the money being channelled back into its grand slam development fund.