Melbourne  - One-time Grand Slam winner Andy Roddick renewed his fight to regain relevance in tennis on Monday, beginning his Australian Open campaign with a defeat of Swedish qualifier Bjorn Rehnquist 6-0, 6-2, 6-2.

The number eight US player lifted his lone major honour at the 2003 US Open, then gradually slid into neutral and fell from the discussion when big titles were mentioned.

The 26-year-old is starting afresh this season with new coach Larry Stefanki and is determined to try and gate-crash the title party alongside the "Big Four" favourites Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, holder Novak Djokovic and newcomer Andy Murray.

But Roddick admits he's got some work to do.

"They absolutely deserve to be the four that get talked about right now," Roddick said. "My results last year, especially in Slams, don't warrant me being talked about.

"The thing about sports is no one really remembers yesterday, and that's fair. You have to go out and prove yourself on a daily basis. I have no problem with that."

The good friend and neighbour of cyclist Lance Armstrong, currently dominating Aussie media coverage in the Tour Down Under in Adelaide, couldn't fault his win into the second round.

"You have to go and execute. I was able to do that today. It was a good start."

Number 16 Swede Robin Soderling captured some Scandinavian honour with his defeat of American Robert Kendrick 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 while Slovak veteran Dominik Hrbaty beat John Isner of the US 7-6 (7-4), 2- 6, 6-2, 7-5.

German men split a pair of matches, with Florian Mayer defeating Algerian Lamine Quahab 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 while Philipp Petzschner lost to Argentine Brian Dabul 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

Women's fifth seed Ana Ivanovic led a trio of seeds to opening-day victories, with Serbia's former number one defeating German Julia Goerges 7-5, 6-3.

"I'm very pleased to have a victory, obviously," the reigning French Open winner said.

"In the beginning, I took some time to adjust to rhythm, getting slowly get into match, because I never played against.

"I'd never seen her play."

Ivanovic was followed into the second round by Russian number seven Vera Zvonareva, a 7-6 (7-2), 6-0 winner over Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova.

French ingenue Alize Cornet, the 15th seed, completed the early sweep against Mariya Koryttseva of the Ukraine 6-3, 6-4.

Cornet, criticized in Australian media for what was called a "see- through" top she wore at the recent Hopman Cup, didn't appear to raise any moral outcry with her clothing in her opening match. (dpa)