Swiss 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer won his first match at the Australian Open Monday after coming off a injury-blighted 2016.

Federer downed his one-time junior rival Jurgen Melzer of Austria 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in 2hr 6min on Rod Laver Arena.

The Swiss 17th seed will now play American qualifier Noah Rubin in the second round.

Andy Murray ground out a hard-earned straight sets win over plucky Illya Marchenko to open his campaign for a first title in Melbourne.

The world number one, who has lost five Australian finals – four of them to Novak Djokovic – carved out a 7-5, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 victory.

It was an unforgiving physical workout for the British top seed, who fought back after a wobbly beginning to wear down his 93rd-ranked Ukrainian opponent in draining heat.

Elsewhere, there were wins for Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych, Nick Kyrgios and Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri.

In the women’s singles, world number one Angelique Kerber battled past Lesia Tsurenko to get her first Grand Slam title defence off to a stuttering start.

The top seed ultimately proved too much for the Ukrainian, winning 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena, but the laboured victory was less than impressive from the German.

Meanwhile, Simona Halep fell victim to the first shock of the competition after the number four seed was dumped out by American Shelby Rogers.

Halep had been one of the favourites to challenge for the title in Melbourne but the Romanian was beaten 6-3 6-1 by Rogers.

It is the second year running Halep has endured a first-round defeat here after she lost to Japan’s Shuai Zhang 12 months ago. Rogers goes through to meet either Australian wildcard Ashleigh Barty or Germany’s Annika Beck in round two.