While defending champion Jennifer Capriati was left to lick her wounds after her shock first round exit, there were no such problems for the other leading contenders on the first day of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Andre Agassi indicated that he is going to cause problems for top seed Lleyton Hewitt, aiming to become the first Australian to win in Melbourne since Mark Edmondson in 1976.
Looking lean and sharp, and with wife Steffi Graf watching in the stands, second seed Agassi disposed of American compatriot Brian Vahaly with a minimum of fuss, winning 7-5, 6-3, 6-3.
"I felt nervous going out there today, it's been a bit longer than I would have liked," said Agassi, making his first appearance at the Australian Open for two years after injury ruled him out in 2002. "My focus is not so much being ranked number one, but finishing number one at the end of a Grand Slam tournament."
Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan had been given the honour of playing the opening match on the main court, and returned the favour by beating Austrian Jurgen Melzer 7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 6-0 in 2hr 18min.
The win set up a second round encounter with Australian Mark Philippoussis, who defeated the Netherlands' Martin Verkerk 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 in the late game today.
Men's fifth seed Carlos Moya, regarded by many as a dark horse for the men's crown, also got away smoothly, beating Belgium's Dick Norman 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 despite being bothered by a sore elbow.
There were wins too for compatriot and fourth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero, who beat Franco Squillari, 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and eighth seed Albert Costa, who defeated Germany's David Prinosil in four sets.
In the women's singles, second-seed Venus Williams fought back from 3-0 down in the first set before overwhelming Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-2 on the Rod Laver Arena.
Thriving in sweltering conditions, Williams got stronger as the game progressed and came home comfortably.
Elsewhere, hard-hitting Belgian Justin Henin-Hardenne, seeded five, overcame Switzerland's Myriam Casanova in straight sets, winning 6-3, 6-4 in just over an hour.
Russian glamour-girl Anna Kournikova, meanwhile, snapped a sequence of four first round losses in her four last Grand Slams to reach the second round.
The Miami-based world number 42 was never challenged on her way to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Slovakia's Henrieta Nagyova. She now faces Henin-Hardenne in the second round on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, fears that on-court temperatures in Melbourne would force Open organisers to invoke the tournament's more stringent 'extreme heat' policy failed to materialise after steady breezes kept the mercury at bay.