Australian Open 2014 Day 1: Smooth sailing for top seeds, Janowicz survives tricky opener

Novak Djokovic after his win over Lukas Lacko on Day 1 of the 2014 Australian Open

It was an action-packed first day with few surprises in the men’s section of the 2014 Australian Open as the top seeds began their quest to win the first Grand Slam of the year. Three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic, the tireless David Ferrer and Czech enigma Tomas Berdych got their campaigns off to solid, convincing starts while the big-hitting Jerzy Janowicz survived an almighty scare against Aussie rookie Jordan Thompson.

German veteran and 12th seed Tommy Haas suffered disappointment as he was forced to retire midway through his opener, while the man with a point to prove, Stanislas Wawrinka, benefited from an early retirement as his opponent Andrey Golubev retired midway through the second set.

Djokovic, the second seed and three-time defending champion, took to the court with a grim-looking Boris Becker in his box against unseeded Slovak Lukas Lacko, and got into his groove right away as he rushed through the first set with a 6-3 scoreline. While Lacko managed to extend the second set to a tie-break, the Serb quickly recovered as he breezed through the third set for a 6-3, 7-6(2), 6-1 win and booked himself a place in the second round.

Earlier, Djokovic’s main competitors in his half, third seed David Ferrer and seventh seed Tomas Berdych, also managed to record routine straight set victories, with Ferrer getting the better of Gonzalez 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and Berdych beating Oleksandr Nedovyesov 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.

Injuries and retirements are an almost integral feature of the Australian Open and two seeds found themselves on opposite ends of the injury spectrum on the opening day. Stanislas Wawrinka, whom the whole world is watching to see if he can build on his career year, won 6-4, 4-1 against Andrey Golubev. Sadly for Tommy Haas, however, the 12th seed retired while down 5-7, 2-5 against Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, a disappointing start to the year for the German.

Famous headcases Jerzy Janowicz and Ernests Gulbis also found themselves with berths in the second round, both coming from behind in their first round encounters. Gulbis lost the first set rather convincingly to Argentine Juan Monaco, but recovered to win 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-2 while Janowicz, who was lacking match play coming into the tournament, survived an almighty scare against Aussie rookie Jordan Thompson, coming from two sets behind to win 1-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.

In other interesting matches on the day, Aussie Matt Ebden kept the local flag flying, winning a five-set thriller against marathon man Nicolas Mahut, while Tommy Robredo and Kevin Anderson also came through five-setters against Lukas Rosol and Jiri Vesely respectively.

Day 2 at the Aussie Open sees fan favourites Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal take to court along with three time runner-up Andy Murray. Federer and Murray will open eith relatively straightforward encounters against Chris Duckworth and Go Soeda respectively, while Nadal will play what is perhaps the match of the opening round against Australia’s second-best player, Bernard Tomic. India’s lone participant, Somdev Devvarman will also be in action, facing a tough opener against Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.