Crowd-pleasing Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis declared himself in love with Australia after making a triumphant return with a straight-sets victory over Latvian qualifier Ernests Gulbis in the first round of the Sydney International.

It was Baghdatis's first match down under since losing to Roger Federer in last year's Australian Open final and the fourth seed didn't disappoint his legion of fans - which included more than a dozen relatives who live in Sydney - notching a 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 win at Olympic Park.

The smiling showman said the Australian sunshine and court surface brought the best out in him.

"Whenever I see the Rebound Ace and the colour of the courts, I just want to play," Baghdatis said after overcoming upper leg muscle tightness late in the first set to comfortably progress.

"Really, I'm not joking, I'm serious. I don't know why, the sunshine and all the things, it gives you motivation to play."

Baghdatis only arrived in Australia on Sunday from Doha, where he lost in the quarter-finals, and admitted to be initially lacking the motivation to get out of bed Monday morning.

"Jet lag and waking up, I didn't want to really come out and play," he said.

"I was very, very tired and I'm happy I fought through and I won today."

The 21-year-old, who sensationally claimed the scalps of Andy Roddick, Ivan Ljubicic and David Nalbandian in successive matches to make the final at Melbourne Park last year, required medical treatment for what he described as a "small contracture" before the start of the second set.

But the world No.11 recovered to blow away the Latvian in the second set and will play Jan Hernych on Wednesday for a place in the quarter-finals after the Czech qualifier upset last year's runner-up, Italian Andreas Seppi, 6-4 6-2 earlier today.

Fifth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych also advanced, downing Australian qualifier Robert Smeets 6-2 7-5 but eighth-seeded Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean suffered a surprise 6-4 6-4 defeat at the hands of Spain's Fernando Verdasco.

American Robby Ginepri downed German Florian Mayer 6-3 6-2.

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