Australian Open: Federer rolls, Sharapova and Djokovic get comeback wins

Roger Federer fears that he might not be able to repeat his "fairytale" 2017 Australian Open victory this month, but the men's singles favourite did little to dampen expectations regarding a 20th Grand Slam title on Tuesday (16 January) as he began his latest Melbourne campaign with a typically dominant victory over Aljaz Bedene.

At every Australian Open tournament, tennis great Ken Rosewall writes a heartfelt letter and leaves it for Roger Federer in the players' locker room.

'I think my dream was always to play a long time on tour. a few guys did that and that inspired me really.

Federer looked just as imperious as when he won the last five games to beat Rafa Nadal in last year's thrilling final and end a five-year wait for his 18th major.

“Im hoping for it to go well again, Im not sure it can go this well because past year was so good.

"I'm anxious it won't be as good as last year, I'm a year older and guys are coming back".

Poor Bedene, no mean performer at world number 51, can now at least say he has witnessed Federer's brilliance first hand, having never previously faced him. I cant control it all. A year ago I was looking at slipping outside the top 30.

"There is no better place to start than here in Australia, I love coming here, I love playing here", Djokovic told the crowd.

The five-time major victor recovered from an early break in the second set and closed out her 6-1, 6-4 victory over Tatjana Maria with an ace. But Wawrinka was heartened by the first examination of his still painful knee at the years opening Grand Slam. "It's great to be back".

He said it was "great to see Johnny Mack too".

Even though the Serbian former World No.1 one has been out of action for six months he looked in good shape.

It was an impressive performance, with the Serb breaking Young's left-handed serve six times, hitting 33 winners and conceding only 27 unforced errors.

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