When the draw came out a few days ago, Roger Federer looked like he had a tough draw, relatively speaking.  Murray landed on his half of the draw.  His first round opponent is the talented Benoit Paire of France.  Nikolay Davydenko, who gave Roget a scare in 2010, at the Australian Open and who recently reached the finals of Doha, is a potential second round opponent.  A slimmed up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is a potential quarterfinal opponent.  And Roger decided to forgo a warmup tournament, something he’s done before, but not in years.

Benoit Paire reflects all the good and bad in stereotypical French playing.  He is flashy, which means he’s alternately good and bad.  His mental focus is less than stellar.  The French lack someone with the monster discipline of Rafael Nadal which may be one reason they lack a number 1 player.

If Roger showed signs of rust, backhands spraying this way and that, then one positive is that Paire was even worse.  By the third set, Darren Cahill, with the strong Aussie sense of giving it your best, was ready to take the flighty Frenchman to the woodshed.  Federer, by contrast, had to be happy that his less than stellar play wasn’t being punished.  Federer tried to attack the net more than usual, perhaps signalling a long-term strategy down under.

Andy Murray also faced a potentially tough opponent, one that had better credentials than Paire.  Haase had pushed Nadal to 5 sets back in 2010.  He also pushed Murray to five sets in 2011 at the US Open.  But the newly aggressive Murray, coached by Lendl to end points more quickly, and not get involved in long drawn out matches against lesser opponents, won 63 61 63.

Other notable results.  Bernard Tomic continued his winning ways with a straight set win over Leonardo Mayer.  He and Federer have a potential third round match-up.  Tsonga has lost about 15 pounds and looks like he’s playing more aggressive tennis.  He may be following the Mardy Fish route who lost pounds to ease pressure on his knees.  He faced his countryman, Michael Llodra, and although this match had entertaining points, Tsonga was in control.

Juan Martin del Potro had an easy win over Adrian Mannarino.  Marin Cilic had a tight three set win over Matosevic, a solid Aussie player.  Gael Monfils, who came to the tournament unseeded, split two tiebreak sets with Dolgopolov, then took sets 3 and 4, showing his return to the big stage after injury left him off the tour for several months.  Richard Gasquet also won his match in straight sets.

Although Jan Hajek took the initial set off Milos Raonic, Raonic came back strong to take sets 2 and 3, and ran away with the fourth set tiebreak.

Jarkko Nieminen pulled a first round upset of Tommy Haas, beating him 8-6 in the fifth.  Nieminen tends to play well at the start of the year, so bad luck for Haas.

In another upset, Blaz Kavcic handled Thomaz Bellucci in a straight set win.

Gilles Simon needed 4 sets to beat Volandri, and recently minted Canadian, Jesse Levine topped Spanish veteran, Tommy Robredo, in four sets as well.  Ivan Dodig beat Wu Di in four sets in a historic match that featured the first Chinese male in the main draw of a Slam.

Ricardas Berankis, a former top junior, beat Sergiy Stakhovsky, who has seen better days.  Berankis in straight sets.  The recently surging Daniel Brands upset 27th seed, Martin Klizan.

Nikolay Davydenko won his match over Dudi Sela in four sets, to set up a tough second round match against Roger Federer.

Florian Mayer was down teo sets to love and mired in a fourth set marathon tiebreak against Rhyne Williams, but managed to pull out the tiebreak, and then coast in the fifth set to avoid a rather upset filled second day of play.  Lukas Rosol, the Wimbledon giant killer, has struggled to get wins, but beat Brit, Jamie Baker, in the opening round.  Denis Istomin, who is having a decent year, won his first match in four sets, against Sijsling of the Netherlands.