MELBOURNE, Jan 14, 2008 - Andy Roddick preserved his record of never losing an opening round match at the Australian Open when he successfully launched his campaign with an unruffled victory here Monday.

　　While young gun Andy Murray crashed and burned in his first match, the American serve-volley needed one hour 38 minutes to overcome Czech qualifier Lukas Dlouhy and ease his way into the Grand Slam.

　　The sixth seed advanced 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 and has not lost his opening match in seven trips to the Australian Opens.

　　"I think those are the type of matches where if you're not match tough it can get a little tricky," Roddick said.

　　"I just tried to stay the course and get through his kind of peaks and valleys."

　　Roddick, in the bottom half of the men's draw and away from 12-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer, is looking to do better than his best finish of three semi-final appearances here.

　　He faces a potential semi-final with second seed Rafael Nadal.

　　It was Roddick's first official match of the new 2008 season although he won the lead-up Kooyong Classic exhibition for the third straight year, beating Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in last Saturday's final.

　　"There's always excitement when you start the new year," Roddick said.

　　"I like this event. It's kind of the few where you can map out four weeks to prepare for one tournament, where it's normally you prepare as you go and have to make adjustments dependent upon results, conditioning, so on and so forth."

　　Roddick, America's hero in winning last month's Davis Cup final against Russia in Oregon, was temporarily held up in his drive for victory when Dlouhy, ranked 154, broke him when he was serving for the match in the 10th game.

　　But that merely pushed Roddick into breaking Dlouhy's service for the fifth time in the next game and ripping through his next service game to love to clinch victory on his first of three match points with his 13th ace.

　　"I don't know if there was much rhythm to be had with the way he went about the match," Roddick said.

　　"So it's weird feel like you got a lot out of it when some guy's taking the first ball and just charging."

　　Coached by American tennis great Jimmy Connors, Roddick will next play German Michael Berrer in the second round.