Melbourne – World number three David Ferrer and Swiss top 10 player Stanislas Wawrinka led the top seeds into the men's singles second round at the Australian Open Monday.
In stifling heat, Ferrer went through in straight sets and Swiss eighth seed Wawrinka progressed on an injury retirement by his opening round opponent Andrey Golubev.
Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych also went through 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 against Kazakhstan's Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
Golubev, another Kazakh, retired with a calf injury in the second set of their match on Hisense Arena with Wawrinka leading 6-4, 4-1 at the time.
“We never want the opponent to retire for injury, but that's what happened,” Wawrinka said.
“I was feeling good. I think it's one of the best starts in a Grand Slam how I felt on the court.
“I was moving well, playing strong, playing okay. For sure I made some mistakes, but for the first (match) ne it's never easy.”
Ferrer, who has reached the semi-finals in two of the last three Australian Opens, took just over two hours to put away Colombia's Alejandro Gonzalez, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
The fit Spaniard, who lost to Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun in the Auckland final last weekend, had a solid workout in the heat with a total of 13 service breaks – eight of them to Ferrer.
Ferrer, who lost to Novak Djokovic in last year's semi-final, dominated the points with 15 forehand winners from the back court and picked up plenty of cheap points with his disguised drop shot.
Russian 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny polished off Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff in straight sets in one hour, 49 minutes and Ivan Dodig won the all-Croatian opening round match against Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (10/8), 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
Finland's Jarkko Nieminen was on court for three hours and 38 minutes before prevailing in five sets over Israeli Dudi Sela 6-3 in the fifth.
German Florian Mayer had an easier time in a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over American qualifier Denis Kudla, while Bosnia and Herzegovina qualifier Damir Dzumhur beat Czech Jan Hajek in straight sets. – Sapa-AFP