Melbourne, Jan 16 (IANS): Jannik Sinner made a confident start at the Australian Open, where the 21-year-old is aiming to back up his run to the quarter-finals from one year ago.

The 15th-seeded Italian ran away with a 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 win against Kyle Edmund to open Monday's play here— though he needed six match points to close out a marathon final service game, reports atptour.com.

"I think I played very solid today," Sinner said in his post-match interview in John Cain Arena. "I had some difficult times to finish it off, but I think my level was very good today."

Sinner, who reached three quarter-finals and one fourth round (Roland Garros) at the Grand Slams in 2022, continued his consistent play in the early stages of the majors with a convincing win in under two hours.

After a 50-minute opening set, Sinner found a new gear to improve to 2-0 in his ATP Head2Head against Great Britain's Edmund - with their first meeting coming earlier this month in Adelaide. The Italian saved five of six break points, including two in the final game, while breaking serve seven times from 10 chances.

"I like the conditions," he said of the Melbourne hard courts. "Obviously when you play in stadiums, for me it's a little bit easier, the court is a little bit slower. When you make a quarter-final in any Slam, it means that you like the conditions. So I'm very happy to be back here."

Next up for Sinner is either Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Gregoire Barrere. He is seeded to meet countryman Lorenzo Musetti in the third round and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round.

Edmund, whose best Grand Slam result is a semi-final run at the 2018 Australian Open, was competing at the event for the first time since 2020 as he steps up his return from a knee injury that sidelined him for much of the past two seasons.