The first night session on Rod Laver Arena was a whitewash - Top seed Rafa Nadal wasted little time with his Dominican Republic opponent Victor Estrella Burgos, giving up just three games for the match.
Victor was just out of his class, Nadal’s placement and power too much right from the outset.
Once the match was going the rallies began to become more involved but Rafa still won most in the end.
It was looking dire at 5-0 in set one, but the place almost erupted when Victor won his first game to save the 6-0 scoreline.
Even more cheering came in set two, when again it was 5-0 and Nadal was serving for the set.
The game went for twenty points and Victor had six break point opportunities. He broke Nadal on the sixth chance.
Sadly only those couple of moments could be gleaned for Victor from a smashing from Rafa who was making a statement.
Next on court was Australia’s number two Dasha Gavrilova (23) and she was Nadal like in the way she dispensed with American qualifier Irina Falconi.
This was an awful day for the US, with 8th seed Jack Sock another to exit, gone to Yuichl Sugita of Japan.
Gavrilova won 6-1 6-1 in just an hour and four minutes, hitting 23 winners to 5.
Other winners in the night included:
Nick Kyrgios (17) over Rogerio Dutra Silva in straight sets
Caroline Wozniacki (2) over Mihaela Buzarnescu in straight sets
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (15) over qualifier Kevin King.
Wildcard Olivia Rogowska over fellow Aussie wildcard Jaimee Fourlis
Qualifier Ruben Bemelmans over Lucas Pouille (18)
The first day of Aus Open 2018 was a disaster for the US seeds, and seeds generally, 11 falling.
A good start for Australia with Ebden, Millman, Kyrgios, Gavrilova and Rogowska through to the second round.
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