Thursday, January 20, 2011

Nadal sets up Aussie battle

In his quest to become the first player to hold all four Grand Slams at once since 1969 Rafael Nadal is certainly making light work of things so far.

After leading 6-0 5-0 in his first round encounter against Brazilian Marcos Daniel before his opponent retired, the Spaniard is clearly keen to minimise time spent on court in the early rounds as he set about his task in round two in equally destructive fashion.

Facing American qualifier Ryan Sweeting, Nadal took just 28 minutes to wrap up the first set 6-2 before dropping just one game in the 38-minute 6-1 second set. There was no let up in the third either as another convincing 6-1 win completed the victory in just only one hour and 40 minutes, putting Nadal through and sending out a warning to his rivals. No one would have been surprised as the Goalwire live match score came though.

He should face a greater challenge in the next round though as he will also have to battle a partisan home crowd as Australian teenager Bernard Tomic in round three.
Wildcard entrant Tomic, who is ranked 199 in the world, shocked Spain's 31st seed Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 to the delight of the Melbourne crowd and he will represent the first true obstacle standing in the way of Nadal and a place in the history books. It was a real livescore tennis upset, and fans will be hoping for more of the same.

The 18-year-old, who was born in Germany but moved to Australia as a child, is bidding to become the first Aussie in eight years to beat the world's best male tennis player.

Not since Mark Philippoussis beat Andre Agassi in the fourth round at Wimbledon en route to the 2003 final has an Australian beaten men's world number one.

But despite the pressure that it brings, Tomic's declaration that he has nothing to lose has piled the pressure back onto Nadal who will have to show his true class if he is to extend his stay in the competition.

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