Bright start: Serena Williams advances at Australian Open

Bhambri was playing his first tour-level match since the last Australian Open.

After the infamous match between Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello at the 2007 Polish Open, then world No. 3 Djokovic said he had been offered US$220,000 (£153,000) to lose in the first round at St Petersburg the previous year.

The 92nd-ranked Kateryna Bondarenko earned one of her biggest wins since returning from retirement after having a baby in 2013, beating two-time major victor and No. 23-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 7-5.

Williams said she didn’t feel the knee problem at all during Monday’s match against No. 34-ranked Girorgi.

Djokovic broke Chung’s first two service games on the way to taking the second set.

“I don’t think the shadow is cast over our sport”, he said. They insisted that the reports submitted by the two organisations were about 10 years ago and added that they would investigate any further update on the issue.

“I undoubtedly had the best season and best year of my life in 2015”, a clearly amused Djokovic told on-court interviewer Jim Courier before directing a message to his wife.

Other seeded players advancing included No. 12 Belinda Bencic, who had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Timea Babos, and No. 13 Roberta Vinci, who beat Irina Falconi 6-2, 6-3.

The report, released on Sunday, states that 16 unnamed top-50 players have been flagged multiple times for match fixing but have continued to play without discipline from the Tennis Integrity Unit.

“Tennis authorities absolutely reject any suggestion that evidence of match fixing has been suppressed for any reason or isn’t being thoroughly investigated”, he said.

The Swiss third seed wasted little time in disposing of the Georgian 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 in a night match on Rod Laver Arena to set up a second round meeting with practice partner Aleksandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine. The Russian prodigy prevailed 1-6, 7-6, 6-4.

The American, who was recently named the greatest tennis player of her generation is in a search of a record-tying 22nd Grand Slam win in the Open era, which is now held by Steffi Graf.

Association of Tennis Professionals president Chris Kermode strongly denied the authorities or Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), set up to police the sport, had sought to cover up any suspected improprieties.

It must be noted that a betting company is sponsoring this year’s Australian Open which has caused quite a furor after BBC and Buzzfeed claimed to have secret documents which contain reports of fixing claims including the names of some Grand Slam winners.

The BBC and BuzzFeed published an investigative report alleging widespread match-fixing and corruption in the sport of tennis.

And Federer, who easily beat Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-2 6-1 6-2 in his first-round match of the Australian Open, said: “I would love to hear names”.