Defending champion Stan Wawrinka and four-time winner Novak Djokovic both passed their opening tests at the Australian Open with flying colours, storming into the last 64 with dominant performances yesterday.
Any doubts Wawrinka may have had regarding how he would handle his return to Melbourne, the site of his greatest triumph last year, vanished within 91 minutes of him stepping on Rod Laver Arena as he stormed past Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
The Swiss star fired 34 winners past the world No100 to take his first round record in Melbourne to a perfect 10-0 and will next take on Romania’s Marius Copil in round two.
“It was great. I was happy to be back on the court. I can feel that I have a lot of support here, and it's always nice to come back like that and to feel the crowd behind you,” said Wawrinka after notching his fifth consecutive win of 2015.
“For sure it's great, but it's still the beginning of the tournament. First round. It's just one match, now I need to be ready for the next one.”
Top-seeded Djokovic, whose streak of 14 consecutive grand slam semi-finals came to an end at the hands of Wawrinka here last year, was briefly tested in his first set against Slovenian Aljaz Bedene but was in no real trouble en route to a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 win.
Djokovic saved all three break points he faced and was an impressive 13/16 at the net against Chennai runner-up Bedene, who remains winless in Melbourne in three appearances.
Djokovic has been battling a persistent flu for the past few weeks and the Serb says he is slowly getting over it.
“(The symptoms) are fading away. It hasn't been an ideal couple of weeks in terms of health and preparation,” said the world No1, who next faces Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia.
“But fought my way through. Now it's behind me. I'm only looking forward. I think I did well in terms of responding to the slow start today, feeling a little bit rusty on the court. So hopefully the next one will be even better.”
It has been a strong tournament for the Aussies so far, with five players making it to the second round in the men’s draw, and Djokovic is particularly impressed with the way Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis fought through their opening rounds on Monday.
“It's not easy as an 18-year-old to overcome the challenges and pressure and expectations. Especially Kyrgios, with the amount of attention he got this week, prior to the beginning of the Australian Open. To be able to face that and win the way they both did, it shows the character,” said Djokovic.
US Open runner-up Kei Nishikori also made it through unscathed to the second round yesterday, 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-2 over Spain’s Nicolas Almagro, who is unseeded having missed seven months last season through injury.
Eighth-seeded Milos Raonic blasted 30 aces but still needed two tiebreak sets before overcoming Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3), 6-3.
“I probably should have stepped up and taken a few more risks on the return games,” Raonic conceded. “ I felt at some points I got a little monotone with my game and I sort of stooped into a not-so-effective game plan.”
No12 seed Feliciano Lopez had to save three match points en route to dispatching America’s Denis Kudla 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 10-8 while No16 seed Fabio Fognini and No21 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov suffered surprise exits to Alejandro Gonzalez and Paolo Lorenzi respectively.
