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Nadal beats Melzer in Madrid Open
Rafael Nadal powered into the third round of the Madrid Open on Wednesday with a convincing 6-3, 6-1 win over Jurgen Melzer of Austria.
- Associated Press
- Updated: May 13, 2009 03:54 PM IST
Read Time:2 min
Madrid:
The defending champion made just three unforced errors playing on his favored clay surface in front of Spain's Queen Sofia, and converted all four of his break points.
The only break in Nadal's concentration came when a ball girl fainted and had to be carried off the center court for medical assistance early in the second set.
Novak Djokovic had earlier eased past Oscar Hernandez 6-3, 6-3 to also advance to the third round.
The third-seeded Serb fell awkwardly on his right knee on the clay surface at Madrid's new "Magic Box" tennis center early in the second set, but was rarely troubled by his Spanish opponent before closing out the match in 1 hour, 38 minutes.
"I was aware the court was quite wet because I saw they had watered it after the previous match. But I was lucky that I fell in a good way so there is no injury," Djokovic said. "It looked easy, but it wasn't. I played just well enough to win."
Djokovic never faced a break point in the match, while breaking Hernandez once in the first set and twice in the second.
"Madrid is different because of its altitude and because the ball bounces a lot. I put on a lot of spin to counteract that," Djokovic said. "It's not easy to get the rhythm of a new court and while the center court here is really good, the outside courts are quite poor."
Djokovic recently fell from third to fourth in the world rankings, after being surpassed by Andy Murray of Britain despite winning the Serbia Open last week _ the country's first ever ATP Tour event which he also helped organize.
"I try not to pay too much attention to rankings," he said. "But I am motivated to win back my third ranking position."
Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina also advanced to the third round when Tomas Berdych was forced to retire with a leg injury.
The Czech player, who won his first title of the year at the BMW Open in Munich on Sunday, retired while trailing 6-2, 4-1.
In the women's event, seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus eased past Peng Shuai of China 6-4, 6-1 and Vera Dushevina of Russia beat Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
In later matches women's No. 1 Dinara Safina was set to play Li Na of China and two-time Grand Slam champion Amelie Mauresmo of France faced third-seeded Elena Demetieva of Russia.
Rafael Nadal powered into the third round of the Madrid Open on Wednesday with a convincing 6-3, 6-1 win over Jurgen Melzer of Austria.The defending champion made just three unforced errors playing on his favored clay surface in front of Spain's Queen Sofia, and converted all four of his break points.
The only break in Nadal's concentration came when a ball girl fainted and had to be carried off the center court for medical assistance early in the second set.
Novak Djokovic had earlier eased past Oscar Hernandez 6-3, 6-3 to also advance to the third round.
The third-seeded Serb fell awkwardly on his right knee on the clay surface at Madrid's new "Magic Box" tennis center early in the second set, but was rarely troubled by his Spanish opponent before closing out the match in 1 hour, 38 minutes.
"I was aware the court was quite wet because I saw they had watered it after the previous match. But I was lucky that I fell in a good way so there is no injury," Djokovic said. "It looked easy, but it wasn't. I played just well enough to win."
Djokovic never faced a break point in the match, while breaking Hernandez once in the first set and twice in the second.
"Madrid is different because of its altitude and because the ball bounces a lot. I put on a lot of spin to counteract that," Djokovic said. "It's not easy to get the rhythm of a new court and while the center court here is really good, the outside courts are quite poor."
Djokovic recently fell from third to fourth in the world rankings, after being surpassed by Andy Murray of Britain despite winning the Serbia Open last week _ the country's first ever ATP Tour event which he also helped organize.
"I try not to pay too much attention to rankings," he said. "But I am motivated to win back my third ranking position."
Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina also advanced to the third round when Tomas Berdych was forced to retire with a leg injury.
The Czech player, who won his first title of the year at the BMW Open in Munich on Sunday, retired while trailing 6-2, 4-1.
In the women's event, seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus eased past Peng Shuai of China 6-4, 6-1 and Vera Dushevina of Russia beat Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
In later matches women's No. 1 Dinara Safina was set to play Li Na of China and two-time Grand Slam champion Amelie Mauresmo of France faced third-seeded Elena Demetieva of Russia.
Topics mentioned in this article
Tennis Andy Roddick Lukas Dlouhy Rohan Bopanna Leander Paes Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi Maria Sharapova
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