Australian Open: Alexander Zverev & Dominic Thiem win, Gael Monfils out

Germany’s Alexander Zverev overcame some early frustration to fight back and beat American Marcos Giron in four sets on day one of the Australian Open.

The sixth seed destroyed a racquet after failing to serve out the second set to level, but took the tie-break and won 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 6-2.

French 10th seed Gael Monfils broke into tears after being on the receiving end of the biggest shock so far.

Monfils, 34, lost in five sets to 21-year-old Emi Ruusuvuori of Finland.

“I lost, I have zero confidence, I played badly,” said Monfils, a two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist.

“I know that I have lost a lot and it hurts me. I would like to wake up and tell myself that this nightmare is over, but I don’t know when it will stop.”

Austrian third seed Dominic Thiem, last year’s beaten finalist, started his bid to go a step better with a relatively straightforward win over Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin.

US Open champion Thiem needed a tie-break to clinch the opening set before taking control to win 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 6-3.

Swiss 17th seed Stan Wawrinka, who won the title in 2014, made light work of Portugal’s Pedro Sousa, winning 6-3 6-2 6-4 in one hour and 36 minutes.

Canadian 14th seed Milos Raonic also raced through his opening match, beating Argentina’s Federico Coria in a 6-3 6-3 6-2 victory that was one minute faster than Wawrinka’s.