In pics: Day 1 highlights of Australian Open

From Andy Murray's exit to Roger Federer's win, here are key highlights from Day 1 of the Australian Open. 

Andy Murray's hopes of a fairytale swansong at the Australian Open were crushed in the first round after loosing to Roberto Bautista Agut. 

Murray had seemed down and out at two sets and a break down to the 22nd-seeded Spaniard but he fought back with all he had to take the game to five sets. That, however, was as far as he could take it. 

He finally lost 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (4-7), 6-2. 

Caroline Wozniacki launched her title defence at the Australian Open with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win against Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck in the first round. 

The third-seeded Dane broke Van Uytvanck once in each set and kept her unforced errors down to win the baseline battle in an hour and 33 minutes in the first match of the evening session at the Rod Laver Arena. 

Defending champion Roger Federer served straight through Denis Istomin to win in the first-round of Australian Open.

He defeated Istomin 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Federer has won the last two tournaments at Melbourne Park in a late-career resurgence and is now angling for a 21st major victory. 

His achievements so far put him on a par with other six-time winners Novak Djokovic and Roy Emerson - although the Australian great's victories all came before the Open era.

Rafael Nadal registered a first-round victory over James Duckworth in the first round.  

He showed no signs of discomfort from his thigh strain as he sailed through to the second round of the Aus Open with a 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 win over Australia's Duckworth. 

Former champion Maria Sharapova gave hapless Harriet Dart a 6-0, 6-0 shellacking to fly into the second round. 

Sharapova took just 63 minutes to beat British qualifier Dart. 

Dart, who made her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon as a wildcard, briefly fired up the subdued terraces by grabbing a break point off Sharapova at 4-0 in the first set but blew the chance with an unforced error, one of 21 for the match.

She saved two match points in the final game but fell on the third with a clumsy volley that flew wide and neatly summarised her day.

Angelique Kerber brandished her credentials as a title contender at the Australian Open with a straight-forward 6-2, 6-2 victory against Slovenia's Polona Hercog. 

The Wimbledon champion minimised her time under the hot sun, securing the straight sets win in just over an hour. 

India's highest-ranked (at 112) singles player, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who made his Grand Slam debut, went down 6-7(7), 3-6, 3-6 to American Frances Tiafoe in the first round of the Australian Open, ending India’s challenge in singles draw.

Gunneswaran, who had qualified for the main draw winning three matches on the trot, showed good fight but fell short on the big points in the match that lasted an hour and 52 minutes. 

Katie Boulter became the first player to win a main draw match at the Australian Open under a revamped scoring system but not before losing her way during the new-look deciding set shootout.

The Briton, who overcame dual Grand Slam semi-finalist Ekaterina Makarova, thought she had won the first round match after reaching seven points in the third set tiebreak and celebrated accordingly.

The tie-break was an extended first-to-ten-points affair, the 22-year-old regrouped and won with 10-6.

Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych won over Britain's Kyle Edmund by 6-3, 6-0, 7-5 in the first round. 

Berdych is on the comeback trail having missed the last six months of the 2018 season with a back injury.

He reached the semi-finals in Melbourne in 2014 and 2015, admitted he had contemplated retirement last year before returning to the circuit in Doha earlier this month. 

 

 

France's Gael Monfils defeated Bosnia's Damir Dzumhur by 6-0, 6-4, 6-0 during their men's singles match on day one. 

Switzerland's Belinda Bencic hits a win against the Czech Republic's Katerina Siniakova. 

Bencic defeated Siniakova 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 during their women's singles first-round match.