Serbia's Novak Djokovic and Russia's Alex Bogomolov started their 2012 Australian Open defense with a victory on Tuesday.
Djokovic won 6-2, 6-0, 6-0 over Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi in a game at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. He is now to face Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo in the tournament’s second round.
Bogomolov, seeded 32nd, defeated Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 and will next play against France’s Michael Llodra.
Another Spaniard, the 5th-seeded David Ferrer, won over Rui Machado from Portugal 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
The first round ended with defeat for Russia's Mikhail Youzhny, Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov.
Youzhny was defeated by Andrei Golubev of Kazakhstan, who won 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in a game that lasted 4 hours and 53 minutes. The Kazakh will face France’s Richard Gasquet in the second round.
Kunitsyn lost to Spain’s Pablo Andujar 1-6, 6-7 (12-14), 0-6 in a 2-hour 12-minute game. Tursunov suffered a defeat from Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic 7-5, 6-7 (12-14), 3-6, 4-6. The game lasted 3 hours and 43 minutes.
Andujar and Tipsarevic will now face Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela and wild card James Duckworth, respectively.
