Defending champion, Novak Djokovic, was both surgical and stubborn on his return to the Australian Open, fending off the challenge of former semifinalist Fernando Verdasco 6-1 7-6(4) 6-2 in the first round on Tuesday night.

“It feels like home,” Djokovic said after the two-hour-20-minute victory at Rod Laver Arena, which has played host to half of his 12 Grand Slam victories. “It feels like coming back to the place that I had an incredible amount of beautiful memories.”

The sharp start and swift conclusion in close conditions will no doubt please the six-time champion, who is chasing a record seventh title at Melbourne Park to surpass the mark he shares with Roy Emerson.

But a tense, tetchy second set that might have slipped away confirmed just how tough an assignment the draw had handed him. Both Djokovic and Verdasco snarled and railed at times in the midst of a contest laced with momentum shifts and missed opportunities before the Serb regained control.

“In terms of performance, I started really well,” Djokovic said. “Great first set, great third set, as well. Second set was a long set with a lot of unforced errors from both sides. It was a gamble, really.

“In the end of the day, I knew that winning the second set would be crucial, because I definitely didn't want to give him wings, you know. I didn't want to have him to start swinging at the ball.”

For a select band of players, the ball makes a different sound as it leaves their strings, and the whip-crack of a full-blooded Verdasco forehand counts among the very best. It carried the former world No.7 within a handful of points of the Australian Open 2009 final, and past that year’s champion, Rafael Nadal, in the first round last year.

It had also brought the Spaniard within a point of beating Djokovic earlier this month in Doha – five times, no less – before the Serb escaped to defend his title.

“From one perspective it was good that I got to have the very tough first-round match,” Djokovic said. “It made me prepare better and kind of approach this match and the tournament with the right intensity right from the blocks, right from the first point. That's the one thing I'm pleased with.”

Djokovic was alert from the outset, opening a 5-0 lead with some blistering tennis as Verdasco, framing one forehand towards the Rod Laver Arena rafters, struggled to settle in conditions he later said were unnervingly quick.

But after the surgical precision of the opener, Djokovic struggled to maintain his dominance in the second. His first serve percentage dropped from 62 to 51 percent, opening the door for the Spaniard to slug away at his second delivery. The duo traded four breaks of serve at the start of the set and toiled to hold from there, the Spaniard seeing a 0-30 lead at 4-5 evaporate in seven quick points, leaving him facing three break points on his own serve at 5-5.

It took the world No.40 seven minutes to escape that game, only for Djokovic to hold to love and clinch the tiebreak. Only once Djokovic had broken the Spaniard at the start of the third set was the contest was finally, well and truly, in his hands.

“Already in the last couple weeks, I was real eager to come back into the court and get into the competitive mode, just be back in the office,” admitted Djokovic, who will take on Denis Istomin, the winner of the Asia-Pacific wildcard, in the second round.

“I'm not the only one that enjoys it. Obviously there are many players that really are appreciative of this sport and what it gives to us. Already early in the season we have the Australian Open – it's the best way to start the year.”

- Australian Open