Each day, Mike Holder keeps you up to date with highlights of how the players flying the Stars and Stripes fared in Melbourne. 

It was a mixed bag for the Americans early on the first day of the Australian Open. The session started quickly with Irina Falconi, who received a lucky-loser entry into the tournament, needing no luck in dispatching Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain in straight sets. The American took just 67 minutes to advance. In the qualifying singles draw, Falconi had lost to Heather Watson of Great Britain, but she received her chance when fellow American Jamie Hampton withdrew from the main draw. Making the most of her opportunity, the Florida resident is looking to rise from her current ranking of No. 142 back toward the top 100, which she has reached before.

A trendy dark horse pick after reaching a semifinal in Sydney last week, Madison Keys looked to be well on her way to an easy outing.  Keys took the first set against Patricia Mayr-Achleitner without incident. But she let the Austrian off the hook in the second set despite a handful of match points, falling in a tiebreak. In the third set, Keys battled the heat and herself as worked her way to a match point once again. But much like the second set, she could not close the deal against a savvy Mayr-Achleitner. With no tiebreak in the third set of the Australian Open, the pair played on until Keys finally broke the Austrian's serve to take a 6-2, 6-7, 9-7 victory. The 18-year-old has become a trendy dark horse pick after reaching a semifinal last week in Sydney.

In the men’s draw, American No. 2 Sam Querrey highlighted early play for the Americans. Querrey, who struggled in 2013 and the weeks leading to Melbourne, jumped out to a fast start but let Colombian Santiago Giraldo into the match after taking the first two sets. Giraldo fought back to win the third and pushed the Californian to a fourth-set tiebreak but fell, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6. It was the big serve of Querrey, who fired 24 aces, that pushed him through. After telling USA Today that he stands at the midpoint of his career, American looked crisp and focused as he kicked off the “second half.” He moves on to face No. 23 seed Ernests Gulbis in the second round.

One of the more interesting matches of the day session involved American Steve Johnson, who won the USTA wildcard playoff. The 24-year-old entered Melbourne with momentum after victories against Marco Baghdatis and Kevin Anderson in Auckland. Johnson jumped out of the gate quickly against Adrian Mannarino, taking the first set with ease. But his fortunes turned quickly as he won only three games combined in sets two and three. Then, just as it appeared the American was down and out, Johnson rallied to take the fourth set.  The rollercoaster ended when he fell in five sets to the Frenchman, 3-6 6-3 6-0 5-7 6-4. Johnson, who was a top-100 player last summer, has slipped to No. 147 and had hoped to build on his Auckland success.

Other Americans in early action include qualifier Denis Kudla, whose stay in Melbourne was short as he yielded in straight sets to Florian Mayer of Germany. It was a short and disappointing tourney for Venus Williams who fell to Ekaterina Makarova in three sets in a match discussed more deeply by on-site correspondent Matt Tewhatu below.