The Israeli tennis player had arrived in the capital via India just a day before his first match in the Canberra Challenger.

Sela was jet-lagged and his bags were yet to arrive, but the world No. 87 put it all behind him on his way to a straight sets win over Luca Margaroli.

It would be enough to unsettle plenty of people, but Sela has been doing the quick trip from India to Canberra for about 12 or 13 years and he says after a while you just get used to it.

"It was not easy to play today because of the jet-lag and [I'm] tired... My bags didn't arrive so I'm wearing my friend's clothes," Sela said.

"I wear the same underwear for three days.

"I didn't know how it would go but it went okay. I'm happy that I won and another win is always good at the start of the year to get some confidence before the Australian Open.

"These few weeks I have a lot of matches at the beginning of the year, it's always good to start the year with a lot of matches to get some points and the ranking up. To start the year well, it's always good."

Sela's 6-1, 6-1 win over world No. 797 Margaroli is the perfect preparation before he jets off to Melbourne next week to kick start his Australian Open campaign.

"I won pretty easy," Sela said.

"I played a lot of balls back, the guy was not so solid. I played well in the big points, in the break points in the first game that I had the break point I converted. From then on I got some confidence and played much better."

Sela has his fingers crossed his bags arrive on Wednesday so he can finally settle in for his week-long stay in the capital.

Meanwhile, Canberra local James Frawley was knocked out of the tournament in three sets against world No. 762 Aleksander Vukic 7-6, 2-6, 2-6.