Nadal claims emphatic win over Victor Estrella Burgos in Australian Open
Rafael Nadal answered doubts about his fitness in emphatic fashion as he began his Australian Open campaign with a thumping win over Victor Estrella Burgos.
The world number one came into the tournament without having played a warm-up event following knee problems at the end of last season.
But he was anything but rusty as he raced to a 6-1 6-1 6-1 win in just an hour and 34 minutes.
Veteran Estrella Burgos was not expected to provide too much of a challenge to Nadal and so it proved.
The 37-year-old from the Dominican Republic earned a rousing reception when, after a long game, he broke the Nadal serve to avoid losing the second set to love.
But it was simply a minor detour for Nadal who, in his first match since his uncle Toni stopped travelling as his coach, could barely have asked for a better outing.
Things were equally straightforward for Australian title hope Nick Kyrgios, who promised a new mature approach ahead of the tournament and largely delivered in a 6-1 6-2 6-4 victory over Rogerio Dutra Silva.
Kyrgios received a code violation for swearing at a spectator who he felt was being too noisy but there were no alarms on court.
The 17th seed is unbeaten so far this season having won the warm-up event in Brisbane and faces Serbian Viktor Troicki in round two.
Elsewhere, a terrible day for America in the women's draw was compounded by defeats for eighth seed Jack Sock and John Isner.
Sock, who broke into the top 10 thanks to a brilliant end to last season, was beaten 6-1 7-6 (7/4) 5-7 6-3 by Yuichi Sugita of Japan while 16th seed Isner lost 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-3 to Australian Matt Ebden.
Third seed Grigor Dimitrov, a semi-finalist 12 months ago, eased past qualifier Dennis Novak 6-3 6-2 6-1 to begin his campaign in fine style.
It was a trickier first outing for sixth seed Marin Cilic, who dropped a set to Vasek Pospisil before coming through 6-2 6-2 4-6 7-6 (7/5).
Denis Shapovalov won the battle of the teenagers 6-1 6-3 7-6 (7/5) against Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas but US Open finalist Kevin Anderson lost in five sets to Britain's Kyle Edmund.