Daniil Medvedev has risen to the occasion to sweep into the Australian Open second round with a straight-sets win over Swiss Henri Laaksonen.
Thrust into title favouritism for the first time at a major following Novak Djokovic's dramatic deportation on Sunday night, Medvedev responded with a 6-1 6-4 7-6 (7-3) victory in his tournament opener on Rod Laver Arena.
"I'm feeling great. Yeah, hopefully I can show some good signs here throughout the two weeks," the Russian said.
"I like pressure ... definitely last year started well here in Australia. Won the ATP Cup, managed to be in the final.
"So, yeah, it's a really important tournament for me always in Australia.
"I like to play here, I like hardcourt. So always want to do better than I did last year, but it's not going to be easy."
Tuesday's victory extended the world No.2's grand slam winning streak to eight matches after Medvedev defeated Djokovic in the US Open final last September.
In landing his maiden major in New York, Medvedev also denied Djokovic a fabled calendar-year grand slam sweep.
Now the 25-year-old is bidding to claim back-to-back slams and has a golden opportunity with the world No.1 spectacularly removed from the draw.
With no top seed, Medvedev is the highest-ranked player in the men's event and a warm favourite to go one better than his loss to the Serb in last year's final.
Nick Kyrgios could potentially stop Medvedev in the second round if the enigmatic Australian gets past British qualifier Liam Broady later on Tuesday night.
