Nadal blasts into third round at the Rome Masters


Agencies April 28, 2010

ROME: Nadal romped to the third round through a 6-1, 6-3 win against German Philipp Kohlschreiber at the ATP Rome Masters 1000 on Wednesday.

The World number three broke his opponent four times and gave up only one break point, as he easily avoided the fate that befell world number one Roger Federer when he was stunned by Ernests Gulbis on Tuesday. Nadal cruised through the first set, breaking in the second and sixth games, but his German opponent finally started making a fist of things in the second. He even had a chance to move a break ahead at 3-2 after a poor Nadal drive volley left him out of position and he was passed down the line to give up his only break point of the match.

But Nadal saved it and Kohlshreiber’s last chance was gone. Kohlshreiber was too casual on a stop volley at the net in his next service game and put it wide to give up a break point, which he lost as on another foray to the net, he failed to deal with a high backhand volley from a powerful Nadal forehand. Nadal held serve and was victorious when Kohlshreiber hit a forehand well long of the baseline. Soderling beats Italian wild card Fifth seed Robin Soderling made short work of Italian wild card Paolo Lorenzi in their first ever meeting, reaching the third round with a 6-1, 7-5 victory.

Soderling blasted 32 winners to just nine from one of the last four Italians in the tournament as he cruised to victory in just under an hour and a quarter to equal his best ever performance here from last year. Australian veteran and former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt’s tournament came to an early end as he was beaten in the second round by Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 6-3. Federer coasts in doubles Despite his early exit in the second round of the singles category, Federer remained victorious in his first doubles match this year with his partner Yves Allegro. The world number one and Allegro demolished Sweden’s Johan Brunstrom and Netherlands Antilles’ Jean-Julien Rojer 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Monday.

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