Nadal dispatched America’s Sweeting 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 as he bids to hold all four major titles for the first time since 1969. The Spanish left-hander’s serve was much improved from his opening round win and he came up with 36 winners, 21 of them off the forehand.
Nadal broke Sweeting twice to take the opening set in 29 minutes, sealing the set with a 209 kilometres per hour ace. The world number one maintained the pressure on Sweeting, breaking him three times in the second set.
Sweeting got his only break points in the fifth game of the final set when he broke Nadal’s service. But Nadal broke for the eighth time in the next game to stroll to victory.
“My serve improved a lot since the first day,” said Nadal. “My backhand had a few more mistakes than usual and maybe I will have to play a little bit more aggressively.”
Britain’s Andy Murray beat Ukrainian Illya Marchenko 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 while world number four Robin Soderling reached the third round for the first time at Melbourne Park after outplaying Gilles Muller 6-3, 7-6 (7/1), 6-1.
Clijsters continues to impress
Belgium’s Clijsters easily dispatched Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-3. The US Open champion was delighted with her form and kept last year’s third-round disaster out of her mind, when she suffered her heaviest Grand Slam defeat.
Russian second-seed Vera Zvonareva survived an early onslaught from Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski before winning 2-6, 6-3, 6-1, and Samantha Stosur beat Russia’s Vera Dushevina 6-3, 6-2.
Biggest shock
China’s Peng Shuai handed out the tournament’s biggest shock when she downed former number one Jelena Jankovic 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 to equal her best Grand Slam performance. She will meet Japan’s Ayumi Morita in the third round.
Aisam, Bopanna breeze through
Pakistan’s tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Rohan Bopanna started their Australian open campaign with flying colours as they outplayed the unseeded Brazilian pair of Franco Ferreiro and Andre Sa 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the second round of the men’s doubles.
The pair, who are seeded 10th in the tournament, had a very easy outing as they hardly spared a chance for their opponents to pose any threat, and they breezed away to seal the match in just 49 minutes.
Wagha border match gains support
Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna have urged their respective governments to allow a tennis match across the Wagah border crossing, after getting backing from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Peace & Sport — an international peace group.
The duo hope the match, a part of their ‘Stop War Start Tennis’ campaign, will play a positive role in bringing the two countries together. “A lot of good things have been achieved, the ITF is now supporting this, Peace & Sport is also supporting this,” said Qureshi. “The letters have gone to the prime ministers and presidents of both countries. It is a political issue and there are security concerns, so we’re hoping that they will give us the green light so we can play that match.” Qureshi and Bopanna have also been nominated for the Willi Daume World Fair Play trophy.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2011.
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