Nadal powers through local teen to reach last-16

Nadal broken twice by Australian 18-year-old in second set before recovering strongly to win 6-2, 7-5, 6-3.

MELBOURNE: World number one Rafael Nadal survived a brief scare against local teenager Bernard Tomic to reach the Australian Open last-16, as women’s favourite Kim Clijsters also battled through.

Nadal was surprisingly broken twice by the confident Australian 18-year-old in the second set before recovering strongly to win 6-2, 7-5, 6-3.

Nadal, ironically the last teen to beat a world number one at a major when he conquered Roger Federer at the 2005 French Open, stretched his Grand Slam streak to 23 matches after winning the Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open last year.

The 24-year-old Spaniard will next play Marin Cilic after the Croatian 15th-seed defeated fellow five-set specialist John Isner 4-6, 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/2), 9-7 in four hours 33 minutes. “I need to play a bit better if I really want to have a chance to go to the quarter-finals,” said Nadal. “I’m not playing bad but I have to play more aggressively, longer and closer to the lines.”

Murray cruises to fourth round

Meanwhile, Andy Murray, last year’s beaten finalist and the fifth-seed, dismissed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-1, 6-1, 6-2, as he seeks Britain’s first Grand Slam title in 75 years. He will face Jurgen Melzer in the next round.

“It was very good to get off quickly. I didn’t use up much energy at all. There weren’t many long rallies. So, yeah, it was perfect,” said the Scot.

Robin Soderling also served up a reminder that he is a contender for the men’s title at the Australian Open with a dominant third-round victory

Soderling, backed by Swedish great Bjorn Borg, eyed his fourth successive Grand Slam quarter-final after cruising past Jan Hernych 6-3, 6-1, 6-4. He will play Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov, who beat 2008 finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Meanwhile, former runner-up Marcos Baghdatis pulled out of the tournament with a finger injury while Austria’s Jurgen Melzer was leading their third-round match 6-7, 6-2, 6-1, 4-3.

Clijsters crashes Cornet’s birthday party

US Open champion Kim Clijsters was made to work by France’s Alize Cornet, who fought hard on her 21st birthday but could not prevent the Belgian winning 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.  “She was a tricky player,” said Clijsters. “A couple of times out there I didn’t finish off my points well,” she added.

Meanwhile, world number two Vera Zvonareva survived a Lucie Safarova fightback to stay on course for her third successive Grand Slam final. Zvonareva looked set for an easy win until she tightened up and needed two match points in a tense tie-break before going through 6-3, 7-6 (11/9). The Russian’s next opponent is Czech player Iveta Benesova.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd,  2011.