Sometimes, during a Slam, you’ll see seeds do really well on the first day, then seeds struggle on the second day.  Federer and Djokovic had an easy day, so clearly Murray, Nadal, and Soderling had to show them up.

And they did.  Both Murray and Nadal’s opponents retired.  Nadal was up 6-0, 5-0 when his opponent, Marcos Daniel, retired.  Murray wasn’t nearly as dominant, but was up 6-3, 6-1, 4-2 when his opponent, Karol Beck, retired.  Murray didn’t look spectacular, but as Nadal points out, first round matches are first round matches.  Wait until the later rounds to see how players are really playing.

Robin Soderling actually had to complete his match, but it was a straight set affair over Potito Starace, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.

Despite the top seeds playing, everyone wants to hear how a former top 5 player is faring, namely, Juan Martin del Potro.

Two things are working for del Potro: his serve and his forehand (mostly).  He’s even starting to chase down some balls.  He’s still not exactly dominant off the baseline, and his 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Dudi Sela proves that del Potro still knows how to fight.  But this being a first round match, it was still a struggle.  del Potro may be fine for any one match, but his fitness is likely to be suspect, and so any long matches may hurt him in future matches.  For now, of course, it’s great to see del Potro back and playing competitive tennis.  He looks a lot better than expected, but although Dudi Sela is a capable veteran, the close match means del Potro is likely to struggle.  Indeed, he plays a much tougher opponent in Marcos Baghdatis, who has recently worked on his fitness.

Speaking of Baghdatis, he struggled mightily to win his first round match in 5 sets over Slovenian, Grega Smelja.  Looks like Smelja may have run out of gas in the fifth set, which he lost 6-2.

Let’s see how the Americans fared.  Michael Russell beat Australian Matthew Ebden in four close sets, taking the fourth set, 11-9.  He can fill his Tennis Express bag with goodies now!  Donald Young, who no longer gets wildcards, and must do it the old fashioned way–qualify, had few answers against Marin Cilic.  Although Cilic did not have a good 2010, he was more than a handful for Young.  Young lacks the power off the ground or serve to make an impression.  The only good news for Young is, despite years on the tour, he’s still only 21.

John Isner won his match over Florent Serra in straight sets, but needed a 10-8 tiebreak in the second set to win.  Ryan Sweeting had an easy straight set win over Daniel Gimeno-Traver.  Alas, this means he gets to play Rafael Nadal.  Under no illusions that he can actually beat Nadal, Sweeting said he would enjoy the experience of playing the world number 1.

In the “anything you can do, I can do better”, Tsonga wanted to one-up Monfils.  Tsonga, like Monfils, also needed a five-setter to get out of the first round.  He also came from 2 sets to love down to beat German Philipp Petzschner, who gave Nadal fits at Wimbledon last year.  Fellow countryman, Michael Llodra, only needed 4 sets to beat Juan Ignacio Chela.

Let’s quickly look at the rest of the seeds.  David Ferrer(7) needed 4 sets to beat veteran, Jarkko Nieminen.  Jurgen Melzer (11) continues to show his deep run in the French Open last year was no fluke (as his seeding would also indicate) with a straight set win.  Mikhail Youzhny (10) won his match over Turk, Marsel Ilhan, in straight sets.  The enigmatic Ernests Gulbis (24) had another underperforming Slam, and lost in straight sets to German, Benjamin Becker.

Andreas Seppi beat tour veteran Arnaud Clement in 5 sets.  Thomaz Bellucci also needed 5 sets to beat fellow Brazilian, Ricardo Mello.  Eduardo Schwank joins countryman Juan Martin del Potro in the second round in a straight set dismissal of fellow countryman, Leonardo Mayer.  Aleksandr Dolgopolov had an easy straight set win over Kazakhstani, Mikhail Kukushkin.

Tall Kevin Anderson lost tiebreaks in the third and fourth set, losing to Blaz Kavcic in four sets.  Denis Istomin lost to Czech Jan Henrych in four sets.  Radek Stepanek had an easy straight set win over German, Denis Gremelmayr.

David Nalbandian and Lleyton Hewitt are still playing, into a fifth set, with Nalbandian up a break.

Second round action should start on Day 3.  Among the interesting matches, Federer vs. Simon.  Simon has a winning record against Federer (during 2008, which was kind of a down year for Federer) and recently won Sydney.  Even so, Fed’s been looking pretty good the last few months.  A good second round test for the Swiss.

Stan Wawrinka plays Grigor Dmitrov.  Wawrinka has been playing well lately.  Dmitrov is the up-and-comer.  Is he ready for a signature win?  I think Wawrinka will be too good.

Robin Haase vs. Juan Monaco.  Haase also took Nadal to five sets at last year’s Wimbledon.  He was considered a rising star, but injuries have hampered him until recently.  Monaco is just the kind of player Haase could beat to continue moving up.  But will it happen?

Fernado Verdasco vs. Janko Tipsarevic.  I think Verdasco will be too much, but wow, did Verdasco ever fizzle in 2010, fading badly after (and including) the French Open.  Hopefully rest has helped him recover and he’s planned a saner schedule this year.

Kei Nishikori vs. Florian Mayer.  Mayer’s been the hotter player who upset Davydenko in the first round.  Nishikori is being advised by Brad Gilbert (Gilbert is more of a consultant-coach, with Nishikori still with his usual coach most of the times).

Tomas Berdych faces tough Philipp Kohlschreiber.  However, Kohlschreiber needed 5 sets to beat fellow German, Tobias Kamke.  Berdych also faded after Wimbledon.  Hopefully, he can regain some of his play, but needs to get past Kohlschreiber.