World No. 2 Roger Federer began his quest to retain the Australian Open with a commanding 6-1 6-1 6-3 win over unseeded Slovakian Lukas Lacko.

Lacko barely had a sniff of a chance as Federer stormed over him, sending out signals that he means business after a disappointing 2010. The world number two will play will play Frenchman Gilles Simon in the second round.

After the win, Federer said, I'm really enjoying myself, playing extremely well at the moment and the last six months have been fantastic. I'm very happy how things are going and I will see how far I can go in the tournament.

I thought it was a good match. I don't think he played too bad himself. I saw some talent in him and that's why I was really happy I chose the tactic early on to pressure him. That it worked was great and I'm obviously very happy.

Third seed Novak Djokovic cruised into the second round too, as he sent away Spain's Marcel Granollers with a 6-1-6-3 6-1 win, while other top seeds Tomas Berdych and Andy Roddick won comfortably against Marco Crugnola and Jan Hajek respectively.

Sixth seed Berdych thrashed Crugnola with a fine 6-4 6-0 6-2 victory while eighth seed Roddick was untroubled against Jan Hajek, going into round two after 6-1 6-2 6-2 triumph.

However, the first round wasn't without its upsets. 18th seed Sam Querrey and 23rd seed Russian Nikolay Davydenko were both eliminated by unseeded opponents.

Davydenko fell to German Florian Mayer with a shock 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 defeat while Querrey ended up on the losing side of a five-set thriller which ended 5-7 6-2 3-6 6-1 8-6 to Poland's Lukas Kubot.

Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils, Mardy Fish, Grigor Dimitrov, Stanislas Wawrinka, Richard Gasquet, Adrian Mannarino, Viktor Troiki, Juan Monaco, Ivan Ljubicic, Nicolas Almagro and Albert Montanes were the other players who progressed into round two on day one.

In the women's tournament, World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki progressed to round two with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Argentina's Gisela Dulko. Dulko, who is a top-ranked doubles player, gave a hard fight in the second set and pulled level at 4-4 with a service break. Wozniacki broke back immediately though and was untroubled thereafter as she served out for victory.

Elsewhere, Russian Maria Sharapova beat Thailand's veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn, 6-1, 6-3 at the Melbourne Park. Sharapova won seven straight games, after losing the opening service game at love, to take the first set 6-1 and 1-0 lead in the second. However, her game was not faultless and she will be aware that such mistakes could cause her heavily against superior opponents. She committed 10 double-faults and could manage only five aces.

French Open champion Francesca Schiavone stumbled through to the second round with a shaky 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4 win over Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain while Fourth seed Venus Williams won a hard-fought victory over Sara Errani 6-3 6-2.

Justin Henin prevailed against India's Sania Mirza to go through to the second round, and she is joined by Elena Vesnina, Francesca Schiavone, Li Na, Marion Bartoli, Victoria Azarena, Regina Kulikova, Chanelle Scheppers, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, Yanina Wickmayer and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Poland