Top seed Murray wins Aussie opener

Andy Murray claimed his first win as the top seed by besting Ukranian Illya Marchenko in the first round of the Australian Open.

The recently knighted, Glasgow-born three-time slam winner took over the No. 1 world ranking from Novak Djokovic late last year, and has never won the tournament in Melbourne despite being a finalist on five occasions, and in each of his last two attempts.

Murray's win was a contrast in fortunes, as Marchenko bested his opponent with 46 winners to the Scotsman's 25.

Marchenko also committed 62 unforced errors to Murray's 27, with the defending champ cementing a massive advantage by breaking his opponent's serve in six of eight opportunities.

After Monday's match, Murray appeared more concerned with Davis Cup talk than his performance, reiterating that the format could use some tweaking to encourage participation from the sport's best.

"Everyone seems to be in agreement that the (Davis Cup) format needs to change," Murray offered.

"There were many things discussed (at a recent meeting) that could change Davis Cup, we thought for the better,'" he said. '"A lot of players agreed upon. None of that's been done yet.

"We'll see what happens in the next 18 months or so, see if there's anything we can do to make it better."

For now, Sir Andy can shift his focus to a second-round date with Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu after the unseeded right-hander saw off Russian Andrey Rublev in four sets.