While the majority of seeded players have made it through the first round in one piece (some with a bigger struggle than others), three seeds have suffered defeats on the first day of the 2008 Australian Open in Melbourne.

The men’s singles suffered the biggest casualty of the day so far with ninth seed Briton Andy Murray defeated in four sets by Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Tsonga, who defeated Lleyton Hewitt in the Adelaide International, managed the victory despite not winning a single game in the third set and having more than double Murray’s unforced errors. Tsonga also won two less points than Murray in the match.

Statistics aside, Tsonga won the match in just over three and a quarter hours, 7-5 6-4 0-6 7-6(5).

The other male seed first round loser was eighteenth seed Argentinean Juan Ignacio Chela, who lost to Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in four sets, 6-4 6-2 1-6 6-2.

The only seed to fall so far in the women's draw is number thirty-two seed Julia Vakulenko of Ukraine, who lost to Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-4 1-6 6-4.

Prominent seeds to have first round victories so far today include Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Andy Roddick and Tommy Robredo.

Tags: Australian Open, Tennis