Melbourne: Rafael Nadal looked in ominous form as he powered into the Australian Open third round with a straight-set victory on Wednesday, a workout he deemed “very important” in his return from a knee injury.
Spain’s world No. 1 only dropped serve once in a dominant performance as he reeled off a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) victory over 52nd-ranked Argentine Leonardo Mayer in 2hr 38 min on Rod Laver Arena.
World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov survived a massive scare to beat American qualifier MacKenzie McDonald in five sets and reach the third round later in the day. Bulgaria’s Dimitrov needed to pull out all stops to see off the 186th-ranked McDonald, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 0-6, 8-6 in the night match on Rod Laver Arena.
Nadal, a losing finalist to Roger Federer last year in Melbourne, will face Bosnia-Herzegovina’s 28th seed Damir Dzumhur in the third round.
It was a masterly performance from the 16-time Grand Slam champion, who conceded only 10 unforced errors, stacked up against his 40 winners.
“It was an important victory for me, he’s a tough opponent,” Nadal said.
“Leonardo is a player with big potential, he hits the ball so strong and you could see in the last couple of games how tough was he.
“I had to hit some great shots in the tiebreak, he’s a very dangerous opponent.
“I am happy to be in the third round after being out of competition for a while, a second victory in a row is very important to me.”
He now faces Dzumhur in the next round on Friday, when temperatures are forecast to hit 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), with Nadal urging organisers to shut the roof on the stadium he plays on.
“The only thing that I hope, if it is extreme conditions, I hope the organisers shut the roof. I think is a health issue,” he said.
“Even I like sometimes to play when it’s hot. When it’s too much, it becomes dangerous for the health.”
Dzumhur was a tough opponent, he added.
“He’s a tricky one. The only way to win is play in a high rhythm than him and try to play aggressive, try to put the highest intensity possible out there. That’s what I going to try.”
Local hero Nick Kyrgios was niggled by off-court distractions as he overcame Serbian journeyman Viktor Troicki in straight sets to reach the third round.
The explosive Australian 17th seed was largely in control, winning 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2), but had to cope with a loud chanting fan and a helicopter hovering persistently over Hisense Arena.
After missing a match point and a couple of loose forehands, Kyrgios was broken by Troicki, who forced the final set into a tiebreak.
But the Australian was devastating, rifling through it to hold five match points before winning 7/2.
“It was tough, there was a lot of stuff going on out there, had a helicopter above us for three games and the (umpire) microphone wasn’t working for pretty much the whole match,” Kyrgios said.
“It was tough conditions out there, I know Viktor is a fighter, so I had to stick to my guns and he broke me back when I was serving for the match and I started freaking out a little bit.
“I tried to hold serve and then work it out in the breaker and I got lucky, it was a tough match and I’m happy I got through.”
With Kyrgios about to serve early in the match, a young man in the crowd stood up and chanted loudly before he was ushered out of the stadium by security staff.
He then had to deal with the helicopter which stayed above the unenclosed stadium for several minutes before moving on.
In among all the commotion Kyrgios was in a different class to the 65th-ranked Troicki, who has reached the round of 16 five times at Grand Slams.
Kyrgios, who was slapped with a $3,000 penalty for colourful language in his first round match, looked imperious at times, mixing up blistering forehands with delicate touch shots to enthral the home crowd.
