Defending champion Roger Federer started his 2018 campaign for a sixth Australian Open crown on Tuesday night with a confident, masterful performance on Rod Laver Arena.

The World No. 2, who is competing in his 19th tournament at Melbourne Park, defeated Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 40 minutes. The Swiss star is now 88-13 lifetime at the first Grand Slam championship of the year.

Federer will next challenge Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, who hit 45 winners, including 19 aces, past wild card Soonwoo Kwon of South Korea in a 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 victory in 77 minutes.

Federer broke Bedene’s serve in the fourth game in the first set and won 16 of his 20 first-service points, including three straight love holds. The 36-year-old broke seized control of the match with a break at the start of the second set to leave Bedene winless in six appearances in Melbourne.

Twelve months ago, Federer beat Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final and won seven trophies overall in 2018.

“I am hoping for another good year,” said Federer, who has won 20 Grand Slam championships. “I am not sure it will go that well because I’m a year older, Rafa’s looking in tip-top shape and others guys are coming back.

“Last year was a fairytale and I can’t control everything. I am hoping to stay healthy and give myself chances and hope to play my very best in the big matches.”

The upsets are continuing on Day 2 at the Australian Open. Former Australian Open semi-finalist Milos Raonic, the 22^nd seed this year, has been eliminated by Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko.

The 30-year-old Lacko, No. 86 in the ATP Rankings, overcame 36 aces from the 6’5” Raonic to advance to the second round 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-4, 7-6(4).

It’s one of the biggest wins of Lacko’s career. The right-hander is 0-18 against Top 10 players but he improved to 14-30 at Grand Slams. Raonic was playing in his second match of the season after falling in his opener at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp to #NextGenATP Aussie Alex de Minaur. The former World No. 3 ended his season in October because of a right calf muscle tear.

Lacko will next meet Argentina’s Nicolas Kicker or Aussie Jordan Thompson in the second round.

In an all-Spanish clash, Fernando Verdasco improved to 4-1 against Roberto Bautista Agut in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. Verdasco broke seven times and won 83 per cent of his first-serve points (45/54) to advance 6-1, 7-5, 7-5. Bautista Agut won his seventh ATP World Tour title on Saturday at the ASB Classic in Auckland (d. Del Potro).

Verdasco will next face German Maximilian Marterer, who beat countryman in Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-0, 6-3, 6-4.  

After the first day of play at the 2018 Australian Open five of the 16 seeds who competed are out. But what was shocking was that four of those five seeds — No. 8 Jack Sock, No. 11 Kevin Anderson, No. 18 Lucas Pouille and No. 27 Philipp Kohlschreiber — were all in the same section of the draw, leaving eight players who are 41st or lower in the ATP Rankings to battle for a spot in the quarter-finals at the first Grand Slam championship of the year.

Since Grand Slams went from 16 to 32 seeds at 2001 Wimbledon, this is the first time that four seeds from the same eighth of a major draw fell in the opening round.

Only one of the eight players remaining has previously advanced to a major quarter-final — World No. 89 Ivo Karlovic (2009 Wimbledon), who extended his record as the oldest man to win a Grand Slam match since Jimmy Connors was 40 at the 1992 US Open by defeating Laslo Djere in straight sets. The Croatian veteran is just more than a month shy of his 39th birthday.

And while Karlovic is the only competitor who has reached the final eight of a major, the seven other players in the section are not short on experience. World No. 60 Denis Istomin and World No. 76 Andreas Seppi, who have competed in 36 and 49 straight Grand Slams, respectively, both advanced to the fourth round at Melbourne Park last year.

Istomin, who was No. 117 in the ATP Rankings at the time, shocked the world when he ousted second seed and six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in the second round in a five-set thriller. The Uzbek would defeat 2017 Nitto ATP Finals competitor Pablo Carreno Busta before exiting after a loss against eventual semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov in four sets.

Seppi on the other hand disappointed the home crowd by coming back from two sets down to defeat the No. 14 seed Nick Kyrgios in five sets en route to the fourth round, where he lost three tie-breaks against fourth seed Stan Wawrinka. That was not the first time the Italian has caused an upset at the Australian Open – Seppi also beat Marin Cilic in 2013 and Roger Federer in 2015.

Elsewhere in the section, Kyle Edmund (No. 49), Nikoloz Basilashvili (No. 61) and Ruben Bemelmans (No. 117) have all advanced to the third round of at least one Slam, while the top player in the ATP Rankings who can advance to the quarter-finals, Yuichi Sugita (No. 41) and Yoshihito Nishioka (No. 168), who tore his left ACL at last year’s Miami Open presented by Itau, both have made the second round twice.

So, who will navigate their way to the quarter-finals, where they could potentially meet 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion and third seed Grigor Dimitrov?

The seeds in this section may be out, but the fun has just begun.