But the Scot, who holds Britain's hopes of ending a 74-year wait for a men's grand slam singles champion, mowed through the next four games to seal the win. Despite exerting complete control from the start, Murray confessed to feeling jittery in his first match against the South African qualifier, who had never got past the first round of a grand slam. "He didn't get broken in the whole qualifying," Murray said in a courtside interview. "I was a little bit nervous at the start but broke him straight away." Although finding the target on only 35 percent of his first serves, the Scot clubbed nine aces and 37 winners.
NADAL REACH 2ND ROUND Rafa Nadal began his Australian Open title defence with a 7-6 6-1 6-4 victory over Peter Luczak, weathering a crowd-driven onslaught before powering away from the local hope on Monday. The six-times grand slam champion came back a break down in the first set before wrapping up the tiebreaker to love and breezing through the last two sets in just over an hour. Spaniard Nadal next faces the winner of the match between Argentina's Leonardo Mayer and Lukas Lacko of Slovakia.
DEL POTRO SUFFERS WRIST DISCOMFORT IN VICTORY US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro complained of some slight wrist discomfort from an injury that hampered his Australian Open build-up but still advanced to the second round at Melbourne Park on Monday.
The tall Argentine, who played only one match at the invitational Kooyong Classic tournament in Melbourne before withdrawing because of the injury, overcame American Michael Russell 6-4 6-4 3-6 6-2. Del Potro was rarely troubled by the 31-year-old Russell though he appeared to lose his composure in the third set due to some contentious line calls and was arguing with chair umpire Mariana Alves for the remainder of the set.
RODDICK SURVIVES TUMBLE Andy Roddick breathed a sigh of relief after surviving a nasty fall following a collision with a line judge in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday. The seventh seed bounced back to his feet after tripping over the line judge and tumbling to the ground in the first set of his match against Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands.
Roddick, who was forced out of last year's season-ending Tour Finals with a knee injury, went on to complete a comfortable 6-1 6-4 6-4 victory. Australian Open men's singles first round results from Melbourne on Monday (prefix denotes seeding, * new result):
-- 2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) beat Peter Luczak (Australia) 7-6(0) 6-1 6-4; * Andrey Golubev (Kazakhstan) beat Mardy Fish (US) 6-2 1-6 6-3 6-3; * Bernard Tomic (Australia) beat Guillaume Rufin (France) 6-3 6-4 6-4; Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) beat 13-Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 2-6 7-6(5) 6-4 3-6 6-4; 4-Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) beat Michael Russell (US) 6-4 6-4 3-6 6-2; Wayne Odesnik (US) beat Blaz Kavcic (Slovenia) 4-6 6-1 6-4 6-2; 5-Andy Murray (Britain) beat Kevin Anderson (South Africa) 6-1 6-1 6-2; 7-Andy Roddick (US) beat Thiemo de Bakker (Netherlands) 6-1 6-4 6-4; Florian Mayer (Germany) beat Philipp Petzschner (Germany) 0-6 2-6 6-4 6-2 6-2; 11-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) beat Olivier Rochus (Belgium) 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-1 ; 24-Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) beat Jason Kubler (Australia) 6-1 6-2 6-2.