Australian Open: Easy day under the sun for big guns

Federer, Nadal, Clijsters, Wozniacki cruise in Melbourne.

MELBOURNE: Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer eased into the Australian Open’s second round as local teenager Bernard Tomic stole the show with an epic five-set upset of Fernando Verdasco.

Tomic, his country’s top-ranked men’s player at 38, dug deep as he came from two sets down to oust the experienced Spanish 22nd-seed in a four hours-plus thriller on a sweltering Rod Laver Arena. The 19-year-old produced the finest performance of his fledgling professional career to outplay Verdasco in only his third five-setter.

While Tomic was showcasing the future, the game’s giants Nadal and Federer, with 26 grand slams between them, cruised through in straight-sets victories. Nadal brushed aside US Alex Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-1, 6-1, despite revealing later that he feared his bid for another Australian title was over before it started after suffering searing knee pain ahead of his first match.

Federer spent just one hour and 38 minutes on Rod Laver Arena in administering a 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 victory over the 172-ranked Alexander Kudryavtsev.

Former US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro needed four sets and three hours to reach the second round in overcoming French world number 91 Adrian Mannarino 2-6, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.

Elsewhere, Czech seventh-seed Tomas Berdych accounted for Spaniard Albert Ramos in four sets, Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka eased past Frenchman Benoit Paire and American eighth-seed Mardy Fish downed Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller.

Nadal, Federer play down Open feud

Meanwhile, the long-time rivals sought to play down a rare public spat between them.

Federer said he was ‘completely cool’ despite Nadal accusing him of not pushing hard enough for better players’ rights, while the Spaniard regretted his comments made to media earlier.

“Things are fine between us, I have no hard feelings towards him,” said Federer. “He’s mentioned many times how he gets a bit tired and frustrated through the whole process and I shared that with him. It’s normal.”

Nadal admitted he probably should not have taken Federer to task so publicly. “These things must stay in the locker room,” said Nadal. “We can have different views about how the tour needs to work.”

Clijsters, Wozniacki through

In the women’s draw, defending champion Kim Clijsters raced into the second round and third-seed Victoria Azarenka maintained her winning start to 2012 with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-0 demolition of Britain’s Heather Watson. Top-seed Caroline Wozniacki began her latest bid for a maiden grand slam with an easy victory over Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova.

“It was a good way for me to start the tournament,” Wozniacki said. “I was a bit nervous before the match, but you always just want to get a good start in the first round.”

India’s Sania Mirza lost in the first round, going down 6-4, 6-2 to Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2012.