MELBOURNE MATCH POINTS

FOURTH seed Stan Wawrinka had the more exciting game, but the Aussie crowd still only had eyes for one Swiss yesterday and that was Roger Federer. The No 17 seed was given a hero’s welcome on his return to Grand Slam action following the knee injury that wrecked his 2016 as he conjured up a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Austria’s Jurgen Melzer. ‘It’s beautiful to be back, I couldn’t be happier,’ said Federer, who now takes on young American qualifer Noah Rubin in the second round. Wawrinka, by contrast, was pushed to the brink by Slovakia’s Martin Klizan before winning 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in just short of three-and-a-half hours. FOURTH seed Simona Halep arrived in Australia before Christmas to prepare for the Australian Open, only to become the first major upset of the tournament. The normally speedy Romanian was suffering from a left knee injury and went down 6-3, 6-1 to American Shelby Rogers. SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Aussie Destanee Aiava lost on her Australian Open debut, 6-3, 7-6 to German Mona Barthel. But the home crowd found an alternative young hero in 17-year-old wildcard Alex De Minaur from Sydney, ranked a humble 301, who outlasted Austrian Gerald Melzer to win 6-1 in a fifth set.