Switzerland's Roger Federer.

MELBOURNE (Reuters):

Roger Federer can rarely have started a grand slam on the back of losing his last match and playing a man with a winning record against him, but the Swiss kicks off his Australian Open in such circumstances today.

The world number one begins the defence of his crown against Germany's Bjorn Phau, who won their only meeting in 1999, in the second match on Rod Laver Arena at the year's first grand slam.

Federer lost to Andy Roddick in the Kooyong Classic final on Saturday, but should encounter few problems against the world number 83, who has never passed the second round of a slam in 11 attempts.

Promising american

Defending women's champion Amelie Mauresmo opens proceedings on the showpiece court at Melbourne Park against promising American Shenay Perry, who took two games off the Frenchwoman in their only previous encounter at Wimbledon in 2005.

The battle of former finalists follows Federer's opener with Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis — the darling of the crowds in 2006 after his epic run — facing 2003 runner-up Rainer Schuettler, the German who has been struggling with flu.

Roddick takes on French wild card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first match on Vodafone Arena before Czech 10th seed Nicole Vaidisova, the 17-year-old who reached the fourth round here and the French Open semis in 2006, plays American Jill Craybas.

Fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic then faces a potential banana skin in the shape of American world number 45 Mardy Fish.

The first night session of the tournament sees the 2003 and 2005 champion Serena Williams take on Italy's 27th seed Mara Santangelo.

Safin fails

Marat Safin, the 2005 champion who failed to defend his title last year due to injury, then plays Germany's Benjamin Becker, the man who drew the final curtain on Andre Agassi's career at last year's U.S. Open.

In the pick of other opening-day matches, Serbian 14th seed Novak Djokovic takes on Chilean Olympic champion Nicolas Massu, and Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova plays Australian wildcard Jessica Moore.