Roger Federer makes winning return at Australian Open as Angelique Kerber survives early scare

Roger Federer successfully booked his place in round two of the Australian Open on Monday (16 January). The 35-year-old, seeded 17th as he returns to competitive action after six months out to treat knee and back injuries, dropped the second set to veteran qualifier Jurgen Melzer before recovering to seal a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory.

Elsewhere on day one of the season's opening Grand Slam tournament, 2016 women's singles champion Angelique Kerber made a shaky start to her defence and was sorely tested during a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 defeat of world number 51 Lesia Tsurenko. Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori both needed five sets to repel the respective challenges of Martin Klizan and Andrey Kuznetsov, while controversial homegrown talent Nick Kyrgios took just 85 minutes to vanquish Gastao Elias despite seeing his progress disrupted by a nosebleed.

Meanwhile, Dan Evans continued his impressive recent form. The British number three, who sealed his first top-10 scalp en route to losing in the final of last week's Sydney International, joined Andy Murray in the second round and set up a meeting with 2014 US Open winner Marin Cilic by taking down Facundo Bagnis 7-6, 6-3, 6-1. His next opponent came back from a two-set deficit to overcome Jerzy Janowicz.

The 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is safely through after beating Thiago Monteiro and there were also wins for Australia's Bernard Tomic, American trio John Isner, Jack Sock and Sam Querrey including Serbian Viktor Troicki. Tomas Berdych was leading 6-1 when Luca Vanni retired just two points into the second set due to injury. Lucas Pouille, Pablo Cuevas and Albert Ramos-Vinolas were among the men's seeds to crash out early on.

In the women's draw, there was never any danger of Venus Williams, competing in Melbourne for the 17th time, going the same way as Simona Halep as she breezed past Kateryna Kozlova. Coco Vandeweghe battled through illness to topple 15th seed Roberta Vinci and reigning French Open champion Garbine Muguruza took a medical timeout to receive treatment on a knee problem before eliminating Marina Erakovic.

Svetlana Kuznetsova knocked out Mariana Duque-Marino, Jelena Jankovic beat Laura Siegemund and surprise Olympic champion Monica Puig brushed aside Patricia Maria Tig of Romania. Carla Suarez Navarro, Elina Svitolina, Zhang Shuai, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Irina-Camelia Begu are also through, but Kiki Bertens and Daria Kasatkina both crashed out.