India, Jan. 19 -- Trust Daniil Medvedev to not be too far away from making his audience chuckle, even if it comes at his own expense.

This is the second sentence that the Russian came up with in the on-court chat after winning his first Grand Slam match in over a year: "Last year I lost almost everywhere (in the) first round. except here, actually."

It was quintessential Medvedev - an unintentionally funny summarisation of a largely woeful 12 months, which began with the second-round defeat at last year's Australian Open.

Medvedev is into the second round again at Melbourne Park, after a 7-5, 6-2, 7-6(2) win over Dutchman Jesper de Jong on Monday. Even if the opening act didn't have his A-game look - "hopefully I can be a bit more clin...