Women's world No. 1 Justine Henin and three-time French Open
winner Rafael Nadal cruised into the third round at Australian Open
on Wednesday.
Top seed Henin defeated Russia's Olga Poutchkova 6-1, 7-5 on Rod
Laver Arena.
It took The Belgian only 22 minutes to seal the first set but
the Russian challenger broke Henin at 1-1 and 5-3 in the second
set.
Henin fought her way back to break at 6-5 for the match.
"I played a good first set, well into the match and played very
aggressive and I did a good job in the first," said Henin.
"Then I lost a little bit of the intensity, a little bit of the
rhythm on my serve," she said.
"When she came back came back at 5-all, I understood it was time
to push myself a little bit more," she added.
Nadal made few mistakes when the Spanish second seed stormed
past Frenchman Florent Serra 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 in just 94 minutes.
He produced 39 winners and hit nine aces to book a third round
position.
The 22-year-old was happy with his performance, better than last
round.
"I played much better and I started very good. Maybe the
opponent was a little bit easier, so I can come to the match. I can
feel better the ball, " he said.
Nadal tried hard to fend off a strong challenge from Serbian
qualifier Viktor Troicki, overcoming him 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, 6-1 in
over two and a half hours on Monday.
He will next face French 28th seed Gilles Simon.
Unheralded Australian Casey Dellacqua stunned 15th seed Patty
Schnyder of Switzerland 4-6, 7-5, 8-6 to set up a third round clash
with 2006 Australian Open women's singles champion Amelie Mauresmo,
who overcame Russian Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2008)