Australian Open | Murray, Wawrinka and Federer win tough opening round matches
Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer were stretched in their opening round matches at the Australian Open as the Swiss duo played tough matches to advance under a scorching Melbourne sun. Meanwhile, last year's finalist Andy Murray laboured to a win against Ukrainian Illya Marchenko.
In a match that lasted two hours and 47 minutes,
The Brit committed three double faults in the first four minutes while also allowing Marchenko to level at 5-5 after taking an early 4-1 lead. However, Murray won the set 7-5 after the Ukrainian committed a string of unforced errors. Murray appeared frustrated in the second set as he allowed Marchenko to take a 3-1 lead before toiling hard to win the set in the tie-breaker. In the third set, Murray dominated his opponent, who is ranked 96 in the world, with a series of powerful forehands to wrap it up 6-2.
On his Grand Slam return after Wimbledon last year, Federer was taken to four sets by Austria's JĆ¼rgen Melzer that the former No 1 won 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Wawrinka also struggled in the scorching heat at the Rod Laver Arena, having to dig deep to get past Slovakia's Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
Meanwhile,
In women's singles, world No 4 Simona Halep crashed out in the first round for the second straight year after succumbing to a 6-3, 6-1 loss to 52nd-ranked American Shelby Rogers. In another match, Venus Williams had battle hard to win 7-6(5), 7-5 against 22-year-old Kateryna Kozlova.