Bernard Tomic insists he won’t allow his public feud with Lleyton Hewitt to derail his Australian Open campaign.

Tomic saved Australia from a first-day wipeout at Melbourne Park with a conclusive 6-3 6-4 6-4 victory over French qualifier Guillaume Rufin, after fellow teenage wildcard Jason Kubler was crushed in straight sets and Nick Lindahl received a stay of execution.

Tomic said his ongoing dispute with Hewitt, which stems from an apparent miscommunication with Australia’s former world No.1 at Wimbledon last year, had not been a distraction before the season’s first grand slam event.

“Not at all,” Tomic said, before adding he wasn’t concerned if the pair made up or not in Melbourne over the coming fortnight.

Returning to Margaret Court Arena, the scene of his history-making first-round triumph last year over Italian Potito Starace, 17-year-old Tomic bolted out of the blocks and led Rufin 6-3 1-2 before the umpteenth rain delay.

But, far from being distracted at being forced to spend another hour on the sidelines waiting for the skies to clear, Tomic returned to action looking better than ever.

The two-time grand slam junior champion immediately broke back to level the second set at 2-2 before racing away with the match.

His success provided ample justification – if any was needed – of Tennis Australia’s decision to award their brightest young talent with a wildcard for the second successive year.

Had he lost, the world No.289 would have dropped almost 100 places down the rankings.

But having successfully defended the ranking points he earned for last year’s win over Starace, Tomic can now look forward with confidence to a second-round encounter against either 14th-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic or French veteran Fabrice Santoro, playing in a record 70th grand slam event.

“If I can pull off one more win, then it would be great,” Tomic said.

The persistent showers on day one played havoc with the schedule, although there was still plenty of time for 16-year-old Kubler to bomb out 6-1 6-2 6-2 to 24th-seeded Croatian Ivan Ljubicic

Kubler earned his wildcard on the basis of a stunning junior year in 2009.

But he was unable to match it with the powerhouse Croatian, who achieved a career-high world ranking of No.3 back in 2006.

“I went in there trying to win, but he’s a good player,” said Kubler.

The news was no better for Russian-turned-Australian Anastasia Rodionova, who was outclassed by former countrywoman and No.3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1 6-2.

The reigning French Open champion powered eight aces past the hapless Rodionova in a match lasting just 72 minutes.

Lindahl was barely hanging on in his first-round encounter with Jarkko Nieminen, with the Finn serving for the match with a 6-2 7-5 5-4 advantage when play was suspended late on Monday night.

Snapshot of day one of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Monday:
PLAYER OF THE DAY: Maria Kirilenko – the Russian caused the first boilover with a stunning three-set first-round triumph over countrywoman and 2008 champion Maria Sharapova.

KEY MOMENT – Tournament officials were less than chuffed at 2.36pm when Sharapova, the most photographed woman in sport, flayed a forehand wide to leave the Open without one of its most popular drawcards for the next 13 days.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Who takes care of my dog when I’m away? A question I didn’t think I was going to get today.” – American Andy Roddick was taken aback when interest switched from his on-court prowess to … of all things, his new pet bulldog.

STAT OF THE DAY – Rain played such havoc that just 20 of the scheduled 61 day-one matches could be completed.

TOURNAMENT SUMMARY – Sharapova may be gone, but there was no stopping the A Rod, plus other title hopefuls Juan Martin Del Potro, Fernando Gonzalez, Kim Clijsters, Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova from cruising into the second round.

© AAP 2012

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