Fernando Verdasco, a member of Spain's 2008 Davis Cup championship team and the winner of the tournament in Umag, also played in Adelaide.

Also lined up for this tournament were Lyon titlist Robin Söderling, Tokyo winner Tomáš Berdych, Mardy Fish, Richard Gasquet, and Radek Štěpánek.

Also present were Marion Bartoli, the runner-up at the 2008 tournament in Stanford; Daniela Hantuchová, 2008 Australian Open semifinalist; Amélie Mauresmo, a former World No.

In other first round matches, Jarmila Gajdošová advanced to face Azarenka after beating Peng Shuai, and Tsvetana Pironkova defeated Monica Niculescu in straight sets.

Third-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, aiming for his first career hard court title, defeated Australian wildcard Bernard Tomic 6–2, 6–4.

Qualifiers Roberta Vinci (Italy), Melinda Czink (Hungary) and Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva advanced against Anna-Lena Grönefeld, Alona Bondarenko, and Iveta Benešová.

Lucky loser Julie Coin of France, who was accepted into the tournament when Kirilenko withdrew, beat Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 7–5, 6–7(5), 7–6(3) in the longest women's match so far at almost 3 hours 20 minutes.

Just one match was played in the women's doubles and it saw unseeded duo Mervana Jugić-Salkić from Bosnia and Chinese player Peng Shuai defeat Akgul Amanmuradova from Uzbekistan and Yuliana Fedak of Ukraine 6–1, 6–4.

38 during 2008 that included a maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal, was rewarded with a match against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu who beat Russian qualifier Teymuraz Gabashvili 6–3, 6–3.

Mario Ančić, Florent Serra, and Michaël Llodra all won their first round matches, against Amer Delic, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and home qualifier Joseph Sirianni.

The fourth seed Marion Bartoli emerged victorious in a match lasting half an hour less despite taking three sets, beating qualifier Melinda Czink 5–7, 6–3, 6–1.

Their next opponents will be the new partnership of Briton Jamie Murray and Slovakian Dušan Vemić, who defeated the Austrian pair Julian Knowle and Jürgen Melzer 6–7(14), 6–2, [10-4] (champions tiebreak).

Top seeds Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram needed three sets to defeat Czechs Radek Štěpánek and Tomáš Berdych 4–6, 6–2, [11-9].

Their next match will be against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco and German Mischa Zverev who beat Australians Brydan Klein and youngster Bernard Tomic 7–6(4), 7–6(5).

Home players Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione beat Americans Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey by the same scoreline.

Italian third seeds Victoria Azarenka and Francesca Schiavone followed up their singles successes by knocking out Tatiana Poutchek and Anastasia Rodionova 6–3, 6–2.

In the only non-seeded match, Daniela Hantuchová and Ai Sugiyama eased through against home wildcards Monika Wejnert and Sophie Ferguson 6–2, 6–3.

[18] In the men's doubles quarterfinals, the unseeded French duo and new partnership of Tsonga and Marc Gicquel upset the third-seeded team of Simon Aspelin and Pavel Vízner 7–6(1), 6–4.

[19] In women's doubles, the top-seeded team of Cara Black and Liezel Huber lost to Daniela Hantuchová and Ai Sugiyama 7–5, 3–6, [10–3].

[18] In the remaining first round matches, Polish pair Klaudia Jans and Alicja Rosolska beat Lucie Šafářová and Galina Voskoboeva 6–1, 6–3.

Jans and Rosolska then reached the semifinals by walkover when Victoria Azarenka and Francesca Schiavone, the fourth-seeded team, withdrew from their quarterfinal match.

[22] In men's doubles, home favorites Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione upset the top-seeded team of Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram, while fourth-seeded Martin Damm and Robert Lindstedt fell to Verdasco and Mischa Zverev.

The last two quarterfinals in men's singles were played, with Radek Štěpánek coming back from a set down to defeat fourth-seeded Robin Söderling 2–6, 6–4, 6–3.

Victoria Azarenka, a new top-20 player from Belarus, claimed her maiden Women's Tennis Association Tour title with a 6–3, 6–1 victory over third-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli.