Juan Martin del Potro has insisted that he should not be considered a favourite to win the Australian Open despite starting the tournament in fine form earlier today.
The sixth seed made light work of a straight-sets win over Adrian Mannarino to progress to round two with minimum fuss.
Del Potro is the only man aside from Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal to win a Grand Slam in the last eight years, but believes that he should be considered an underdog to go all the way in Melbourne.
He told reporters: "[The big four] are so far from me at the moment. We play five sets and matches can be tough for all the players, so I am just thinking about my second round.
"Hopefully I can go far, but I need to play better and better. I know how tough it is to win a Grand Slam. But I also know the way to win a Grand Slam so I'm trying to do that for this year.
"But I think I played really aggressive today. I made a lot of winners with my forehand and served well. I made a very good start to this Open."
Del Potro continues his campaign with a second-round match against Benjamin Becker on Thursday.
Liam Power
