Novak Djokovic made a confident return to grand slam tennis with victory over Donald Young at the Australian Open after six months sidelined by elbow problems.
Stan Wawrinka’s knee has kept him out for the same period and battling past Ricardas Berankis was a huge boost for the Swiss while Roger Federer began his title defence with a comfortable win over Aljaz Bedene.
Johanna Konta made a confident start to her campaign but Heather Watson is out, while there were wins for Maria Sharapova and world number one Simona Halep, who will hope a rolled ankle does not prove a hindrance to her title bid.
Tweet of the day
#AusOpen 2018: the first time a player has competed against themselves ?#MariaVsSharapova pic.twitter.com/fRagfjb48S
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 16, 2018
Maria Sharapova’s first-round match against Tatjana Maria caused much scoreboard confusion.
Picture of the day
Shot of the tournament?@ThiemDomi with an outrageous tweener ?#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/R4XbaMCW0o
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 16, 2018
Dominic Thiem has set the standard with this outrageous tweener winner in his first-round match against Guido Pella.
Stat of the day
The Mladenovic losing streak reaches 15 amazing she is still ranked #11 in the world ?
— Brad Gilbert (@bgtennisnation) January 16, 2018
Kristina Mladenovic probably did not consider her first-round win over Tatjana Maria in Washington last summer to be anything too remarkable. She almost certainly did not think that more than five months later, she would still be searching for her next victory. Mladenovic’s 6-3 6-2 loss to Ana Bogdan made it an unbelievable 15 consecutive losses for the world number 11.
Fallen seeds
Men: Roberto Bautista Agut (20), Milos Raonic (22), Mischa Zverev (32).
Women: Kristina Mladenovic (11), Petra Kvitova (27).
Wednesday highlights
With upsets to [8] Sock, [11] Anderson, [18] Pouille and [27] Kohlschreiber on Monday, 1 of these 8 unseeded players will reach 1st #AusOpen QF:@Kyle8EdmundDenis IstominNikoloz Basilashvili[Q] @RubenBemelmans[PR] @YoshihitoTennisAndreas Seppi@IvoKarlovic@SugitaYuichi88
— ATP Media Info (@ATPMediaInfo) January 15, 2018
Kyle Edmund will look to follow up his brilliant defeat of Kevin Anderson by reaching the third round at Melbourne Park for the first time.
The British number two faces Uzbek Denis Istomin, who upset Djokovic at the same stage 12 months ago. Edmund’s section of the draw is the most open in the tournament, with all four seeds eliminated on day one.
Elsewhere, Rafael Nadal takes on Argentinian Leonardo Mayer, Denis Shapovalov will look to repeat his US Open victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga while Caroline Wozniacki, Elina Svitolina and Nick Kyrgios are also in action.
