Satisfied Melzer on top form in opening KL win

Fourth seed Jurgen Melzer began his week at the ATP Malaysian Open in perfect form, with the Austrian crushing South Africa's Rik De Voest 6-0, 6-4 to power into the quarter-finals.

Russian Dmitry Tursunov, seeded seventh and like Melzer playing the Asian indoor event for the first time, also reached the last eight by defeating Belgian David Goffin 6-3, 6-3.

Melzer, champion at the US Open doubles this month with German Philipp Petzschner, could not have asked for a better start to the autumn Asian calendar.

"I'm very happy with my performance today, it's been a while since I've hit ball like this," said the 30-year-old who required just 63 minutes to complete the rout for his 20th win of the season.

He will play former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis next after the Cypriot beat India's Asian Games champion Somdev Devvarman 7-5, 6-4.

"The first set was one of the best I've played all year for sure. I'm feeling really good here, hopefully it can continue," said Melzer.

"Conditions are very slow but if you have enough power it can give you a little more time to set up for your shots and go for some winners which is nice for my game."

Australia's last two hopes were eliminated, with Bernard Tomic and Marinko Matosevic both crashing out in straight sets.

Italy's Flavio Cipolla dispatched Tomic 6-2, 6-2 while qualifier Matosevic fell to Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-3, 6-2 in 72 minutes despite six aces.

On Monday, Australian world number 137 Matthew Edben was taken down by Goffen.

The defeat was a harsh blow to Tomic, tipped as the future of the Aussie game, with Lleyton Hewitt slowly fading out at age 30 from chronic injuries beginning to inhibit his game.

Since stirring passions with his Wimbledon quarter-final nearly three months ago, Tomic's level has dropped, and the Australian has posted just four wins from ten matches.

He beat Stanislas Wawrinka to keep Australia alive in the Davis Cup promotion tie in Sydney this month, but lost in reverse singles to Roger Federer.

Switzerland eventually won the weekend in Sydney for a return to the World Group in 2012.

The 18-year-old Tomic, ranked 59th, met Cipolla, nearly a decade older, for the first time, with the Italian sending the Aussie into negative territory on the season -- 11 wins, and 12 defeats.

Cipolla set up a second-round clash with Serbian third seed Janko Tipsarevic. Istomin also drew a Serb and next faces Viktor Troicki, seeded second.