Australian Open 2017: Number ones show how it's done

MELBOURNE: Andy Murray and Angelique Kerber - the No.1 seeds in the men's and women's draws of the Australian Open -are the believers and builders of the sport. They didn't walk through the door, they broke it down. Age is their weapon; experience, their report card.

At

Melbourne Park

on Monday, the opening day of the championships, they showed how it's done -fists pumping, wrists rolling, shouting and charging, but never wavering.

Kerber, who'll turn 29 later in the week, looked to be sailing, even served for the match in the tenth game of the second set, before Ukranian Lesia Tsurenko launched her gritty challenge, pushing the match to the decider. She forced the top-seed to play the extra ball and run the hard yard and though the left-hander struggled for a bit, she brought her wheels into play, finally coming through with typical German efficiency for a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 win in a shade over two hours.

Murray, 29, looking to win the title and avoid becoming the first man in the Open Era to lose six finals in the same Slam, toiled past Ukraine's Illya Marchenko 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 in the first round.

Murray, who was broken in the opening game of the match, described his straight sets, near three-hour win as `just tough'. “I don't think it was the best match,” the Scot said. “The conditions were different to what we've been practising. Last week's been pretty cool, a lot of days it was overcast. The temperature of the court is much cooler. When it's like that, the ball is bouncing a bit lower, easier to control. I was a bit tentative because of that. Didn't serve that well either. So you end up having to work really hard on a lot of your service games.”

Murray, who mocked himself, particularly his court coverage late in the first set, said, “I didn't move that well. But sometimes that can also be down to the conditions. The ball was flying through the air a little bit quicker.”