Federer, Djokovic Roll In Australian Open First Round

It was a routine start to the 2018 Australian Open for former champions Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, who both won their respective first-round matches in straight sets on Tuesday.

Federer, the defending champion, took out Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in just under 100 minutes to book his spot in the second round.  The Swiss had twice as many winners as Bedene and saved the only two break points he faced throughout the match.

He will take on Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff next. Struff ousted Korean wild card Soonwoo Kwon in straight sets.

Djokovic showed no signs of rust or that elbow injury in his opening round triumph over American Donald Young.

“It felt great to be back on the court and compete again,” said Djokovic, who won 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. “It’s been a while so obviously you don’t know how you’re going to start off. I was putting a lot of hours on the court in the past couple weeks…I could feel that I was hitting the ball well.”

Playing in his first match since Wimbledon, Djokovic’s serve looked sharp, facing just two break points and winning points on 79 percent of his first serves.

“I was looking forward to getting out on the court and compete. But I did feel nerves and I did feel a bit skeptical whether I’m going to be able to continue playing well as I have the last couple weeks in the practice sessions,” the six-time champion in Melbourne said. “But I thought I controlled it well. I didn’t get carried away by anything, even though a couple times in the match things could have maybe gone a different way…Very, very solid performance.”

He draws an intriguing matchup with unseeded Gael Monfils. The Frenchman knocked off Spanish qualifier Jaume Munar 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-4.

American Sam Querrey scored an impressive 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Feliciano Lopez of Spain. Querrey fired 28 aces and never faced a break point. Querrey will meet Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, who won in four sets over Radu Albot, in the second round.

Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko upset Milos Raonic in four sets, while former champion Stan Wawrinka returned to the court with a tough four set win over Ricardas Berankis.

Alex Zverev, Juan Martin del Potro, Tomas Berdych, David Goffin, Karen Khachanov and Hyeon Chung were other notable winners on Day 2.