“He's obviously a great player,” he said. “First tournament of the year, maybe guys aren't quite finding their game yet. The match I played against him, I was really solid. I played great tennis, but obviously five sets is different. He'll be wanting to get some revenge on me for sure.”

Impressive wins for British No.1s

It was more straightforward for both the British No.1s, with Boulter and Norrie sealing straight set victories in the opening round.

Boulter dominated her second set tie-break against China’s Yue Yuan to complete a 7-5, 7-6(1) win over the world No.61.

This is only the second time that Boulter has reached the second round at the Australian Open. Awaiting her in the next round will be 12^th seed Qinwen Zheng.

“To be out there winning matches at a Grand Slam where ultimately I'm not quite at the level where I wanted to be, I think that kind of shows how far I've come in the past few years,” Boulter explained.

“I expect a lot of myself, but I'm still here through to the second round, and I'm proud of myself for the way that I fought and found a way ultimately.”

Despite coming into the Australian Open citing problems with his wrist, Norrie made light work of his first round clash with Juan Pablo Varillas, with the 19^th seed coming through 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 17 minutes.

“I really did the basics well today,” Norrie said. “I especially managed my service games well and I think that was the difference in the match. It was not easy to play at all. It was really quick conditions, and the court was moving around quite a lot with the wind.

“I was a bit nervous obviously always coming into the first slam of the year, so I wanted to really get a big push of energy. I think when it's hot like that, I think you go in with the mentality you're going to be, like, trying to save a little bit, and I wanted to go out with a lot of energy.”

His next opponent will be Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri.

Raducanu wins on Grand Slam return

Raducanu reached a new milestone in her recovery from injury after claiming her first Grand Slam win since the Australian Open last year as she beat Shelby Rogers 6-3, 6-2.

A dominant performance from the 2021 US Open champion saw her drop just three points off her first serve as she progressed to the second round. Awaiting her is world No.94 Yafan Wang, who knocked out 22^nd Sorana Cirstea in the first round.

If Raducanu and Boulter both win their next matches, they will face each other in the third round.

However, it wasn’t to be for British hopefuls Jodie Burrage, Andy Murray and Dan Evans. British no.2 Burrage lost to Germany’s Tamara Korpatsach 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 on her main draw debut.

Meanwhile, Evans lost a close battle with former world No.21 Lorenzo Sonego 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-2, 7-6(4) and Murray was defeated by 30^th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.