Emma Raducanu returned to Melbourne with a bang as she defeated the USA's Shelby Rogers in her Australian Open first-round match on day three of the Grand Slam tournament.
The former British number one - who used a protected ranking to enter the tournament - had not taken part in a major event since last year's Australian Open due to ankle and wrist operations, but she was promoted to the main draw from qualifying due to several withdrawals.
Rogers was also coming into the major on the back of a lengthy hiatus, having been out since Wimbledon with an abdominal injury, but Raducanu cut a much fresher figure as she comfortably dispatched the world number 161 6-3 6-2, despite a brief insect-related interruption.
Raducanu produced four aces and an exceptional first-serve win rate of 91%, while Shelby was left to rue 34 unforced errors and did not fashion a single break point on the 21-year-old's serve throughout their 76-minute battle.
Raducanu has earned a second-round date with Yafan Wang thanks to her opening success, and she was one of four Britons to successfully make it through to round two on Tuesday, a list which also included current national number one Katie Boulter.
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The world number 54 did not have things all her own way against China's Yue Yuan but emerged victorious 7-5 7-6[1] in just under two hours, despite being broken while serving for the match in the second set.
Boulter let two match points slip through her grasp in the 10th game of the second set, but Yuan had only delayed the inevitable, as the Briton regained her composure to win five points on the bounce in a dominant tie-breaker.
Twelfth seed Qinwen Zheng now awaits Boulter, who could meet Raducanu in an all-British third-round match, and there were also triumphs for Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper in the men's singles event.
Norrie made light work of world number 81 Juan Pablo Varillas, winning 6-4 6-4 6-2 in two hours and 15 minutes, hitting 21 forehand winners and saving three of the four break points he faced on the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Draper saw off Marcos Giron 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-0 6-2 in sweltering temperatures, which were enough to make the 22-year-old vomit into a courtside bin straight after winning the final four games of the match.
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However, Dan Evans could not join his fellow Britons in the second round, as Italy's Lorenzo Sonego came from behind to defeat the world number 38 4-6 7-6[8] 6-2 7-6[4] in a contest where Evans was persistently irked by members of the crowd.
The 33-year-old came close to pulling off an extraordinary comeback in the fourth-set tie-breaker, recovering to 4-5 after losing the first five points, but Sonego needed just one match point to seal the deal.
Elsewhere, Carlos Alcaraz did not let four wasted match points come back to haunt him as he overcame Richard Gasquet 7-6[5] 6-1 6-2, while Alexander Zverev, Holger Rune and Casper Ruud also started with victories.
Women's top seed Iga Swiatek navigated her way past Sofia Kenin 7-6[2] 6-2, while two other major winners in Jelena Ostapenko and Elena Rybakina also progressed to the next phase.
Jessica Pegula clinched a 6-2 6-4 win over Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino in the penultimate match to finish, after which Alja Tomljanovic closed the day by overcoming Petra Martic in three sets.
> Click here for a summary of day two's action
Ben Knapton
