Day 1 - men's round-up

In a bid for his forth successive title down under, Novak Djokovic enjoyed a straight sets win over former top 50 player Lukas Lacko. In the first set things was going according to plan with Djokovic breaking his opponent early on to give him a 3-1 lead which then lead on to him taking it 63. On the other hand during the second set Lacko increased his performance matching the defending champion game by game, producing some fantastic shots and moving Djokovic all over the court. This also exposed some of Djokovic's rustiness who unlike many other players chose not to play in a lead up tournament. Forcing it to the tiebreak Djokovic regained control of it be taking the tie break 7-2. He never looked back from there on, Lacko knew its was virtually impossible to come back from 0-2 sets down against somebody who has won the tournament three times in a row and faded away giving the set and match to Djokovic. The final scoreline was 63 76 61. After his win he said quoting BBC sport:-

"I know that I haven't played my best, especially in the second set,"
"But credit to my opponent who was playing really nice tennis from baseline. "On the other hand I was a little bit too passive in some stages of the match and was trying to find the proper, I would say, setting and proper balance and footing in the court." 

 

3^rd seed David Ferrer progressed into the second round, like Djokovic in straight sets. In the first set he stormed to a 5-0 lead however the unpredictable Colombian fought back by taking three games but the 5-0 lead was still enough to give Ferrer the first set 6-3. This was followed by two more close sets with the Spanish number two taking it 63 64 64. During the match Ferrer produced 33 winners as well as 30 errors. After the Match he said:-

"It's important for me to win matches in three sets because my game is based on fitness and I need power for my next match,"

“The most important thing is to win. Today maybe I didn't play my best tennis but I won."

Elsewhere Thomas Berdych also had a straight sets win with victory over Aleksandr Nedovyesov (63 64 63) in what he described as a “solid win”. In the next round he faces South African Kenny de Schepper after he beat Chinese wild card Wu Di 75 75 76. Jerzy Janowicz sufferd a sharp scare before winning his match against crowd favourite, 19 year old Jordan Thompson. The 321^st ranked Australian was on his way to his best career win by taking a two set lead 61 64. Janowicz was however somehow able to reverse the scoreline by taking a close third set followed by two easy sets for the Polish 20^th seed. The final scoreline was 16 46 64 62 61.

The only seed out so far is Tommy Haas who had to retire from his match against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez whilst trailing 57 25. The reason for his retirement was down to shoulder injury he is suffering from. Some other wins on day one includes Stanislas Wawrinka who's opponent (Golubev) also retired in the second set due to a leg injury, Talented youngster Dominic Thiem won his first gand slam main draw match against João Sousa in four sets and Tomy Robredo competed in a hard five setter against Lukáš Rosol by winning the last set 8-6. There was seven other matches that also went to five sets on day one.

For a full list of winners please see the results section.