Nearly all the top seeds had pretty easy wins.  Federer, Djokovic, Berdych, Verdasco, and Roddick, all top ten seeds won in straight sets handily.

The seeds in the teens struggled.  Gael Monfils had a tough first rounder against Thiemo de Bakker, needing 5 sets to win.  He did win the last two sets comfortably.  It’s not so surprising that de Bakker played well, as he probably just missed being seeded.  Ljubicic and Wawrinka had easy wins as well.  However, Sam Querrey was knocked out in 5 sets by Lukasz Kubot, ranked around 70.  Kubot played more aggressively at the end, especially on returns.  Querrey seemed a little shell-shocked.  Querrey repeatedly hit half-volleys from the baseline.  I believe he lost in the first round last year too, though that was more forgivable since he was just coming off a recovery from his bizarre accident in Bangkok (fell through a glass table).

Mardy Fish also struggled, needing five sets to overcome Victor Hanescu.  Hanescu has been seeded in Slams before, so he’s a dangerous guy.  Haven’t heard much from him lately.  Good win for Fish to get past Hanescu.  Almagro had a comfortable four set win.

The seeds in the 20s mostly won.  The big exception was former top tenner, Nikolay Davydenko, who played one of the hotter players on tour in Florian Mayer.  Mayer reached the quarterfinals of Brisbane and the semis of Sydney.  However, Gasquet won in straight sets, Troicki won in four sets, Montanes needed 5 sets to beat Jamaican/German Dustin Brown.  Juan Monaco needed two tiebreaks to complete his straight set win.

Somdev Devvarman, who had a wildcard, lost in straight sets to (unseeded) Tommy Robredo.  Ryan Harrison, who also had a wildcard, lost in straight sets to Frenchman, Adrian Mannarino.  Gilles Simon (unseeded) needed 4 sets to beat Yen-Hsun Lu, a player who plays much like Simon.  Simon gets to play Roger Federer in the second round.

Grigor Dmitrov has a surprisingly easy win over Andrey Golubev.  Dmitrov has been touted as the next Federer, and is starting to work his way up the ranks.  However, he has yet to have a signature win, which many up-and-comers get at some point, usually early in their career.

Ivo Karlovic lost in the first round to fellow Croat, Ivan Dodig, in five sets.

Among the interesting second round matchups: Haase vs. Monaco, Wawrinka vs. Dmitrov, Federer vs. Simon, Berdych vs. Kohlschreiber, and even Troicki vs. Mahut (well, given Serbia and France had a Davis Cup tie recently).  Congrats to Mahut for making it past the first round of a Slam.  Mahut is generally right at the precipice of getting into a main draw, since is rank hovers around 100.

Day 2 involves several Aussies including Hewitt vs. Nalbadian, Ebden vs. Russell, and Tomic vs. Chardy.  Nadal, Ferrer, Tsonga, Cilic, Baghdatis, Youzhny, and Andy Murray are all scheduled to play today.