Tennis: Defending champions Roger Federer and Amelie Mauresmo both secured opening-day wins at the Australian Open today.
Federer romped to 7-5 6-0 6-4 victory over Bjorn Phau to book a place in the second round.
Phau had stormed into a 5-3 first-set advantage but Federer won 10 straight games to quickly claim a 2-0 advantage.
Federer needed three match points to finally see off Phau in the third set after letting the German recover from 3-1 down to level at 3-3.
The world number one will meet Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman or France's Olivier Patience in the second round.
Meanwhile, Mauresmo progressed by recording a 6-3 6-4 victory over American Shenay Perry.
The number two seed recovered from an early break to seal the first set before bursting into a 5-1 advantage in the second.
Mauresmo was broken as she served for the match but booked her second-round meeting with Olga Poutchkova after Perry had held her serve to temporarily delay the victory.
While the two champions both enjoyed straight-sets wins, Andy Roddick had to overcome a scare to win his opener.
The American recovered from losing an epic first-set tie-break to overcome spirited Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The sixth seed lost a record equalling tie-break 20-18 and looked to be heading for defeat in the second as Tsonga served for a 2-0 advantage at 5-2 but the American recovered to level the tie.
Roddick then took control and sealed the 6-7 (18-20) 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 6-3 victory on the Vodafone Arena.
Richard Gasquet, Mario Ancic and Juan Carlos Ferrero also booked their places in the second round with wins on the opening day in Melbourne.
Ninth seed Ancic recorded a 6-4 6-3 6-2 victory over Japan's Go Soeda, 18th seed Gasquet beat Italy's Filippo Volandri 6-4 6-4 6-2, while Jan Hajek's retirement while trailing 3-0 in the first set handed Ferrero a place in the next round.
Sweden's Joachim Johansson was also forced to retire after just two games of his clash with Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.