Top
seed Rafal Nadal breezed past Australia's 17-year-old Thanasi
Kokkinakis in straight sets to advance into third round of Australia on
Thursday.It took Nadal, the 2009 Open champion, just under two hours to
oust native wildcarder, a junior finalist at the Australian and US Opens
last year, in 6-2, 6-4 and 6-2.Custom Rammus cute hatSixth-seeded
Roger Federer, who is competing in a record 57th straight grand slam,
also cruised through to the last 32 in straight set triumph of 6-2, 6-1
and 7-6 (4), dispatching Slovakian Blaz Kavcic.Andy Murry, who is the
runner up for the last two years, also made it a quick work to reach the
next round, dismantling Vincent Millot of France 6-2, 6-2, 7-5.Nadal
will next play 25th seed Gael Monfils, who knocked out American Jack
Sock 7-6 (2), 7-5 and 6-2. Federer's next opponent is Russia's Teymuraz
Gabashvili, who upset 31th seeded SpaniarCustom Phone cased
Fernando Verdasco in five sets of 7-6(1), 3-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.Other
players advanced into third round are 11th-seeded Milos Raonic as the
Canadian powered off Romanian Victor Hanescu 7-6(9), 6-4,
6-4;16th-seeded Janpanese Kei Nishikori, who defeated Serbian Dusan
Lajovic in straight sets 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (3).In women's matches, reigning
champion Victoria Azarenka romped past Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova
6-1,Honeycomb Pom Poms 6-4 in 88 minutes.
Sharapova
was the only one Thursday encountering strong challenge among top
seeds. The third seed had to squeeze her limit to surpass Italy's Karin
Knapp in a match that lasted a tick under three-and-a-half hours.The
2008 Australian Open champion took the first set in a romp, easily
winning it 6-3. But the world No. 44 levelled the match at one set
apiece when she stormed back in the second.The Italian broke Sharapova
twice, winning the set 6-4, but it was in the final set that the drama
unveiled its plot.The decisive set lasted for 115 minutes, even longer
than most of women's matches, ending in 10-8 in the Russian's favor."I'm
really happy to get through. I really am. I worked really hard in the
last few months and I wanted this match. I didn't play my best tennis I
didn't do many things well," said the Russian, who stayed out match for a
couple of months for injury.Sharapova next plays French 25th seed Alize
Cornet who took out China Wheel ForksItaly's
Camila Giorgi 6-3, 4-6 and 6-4.Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, fifth
seed, downed Olga Govortsova of Belarus in 6-0, 7-5.The organizers had
been forced to implement the "extreme heat policy" due to three
consecutive hot days of over 40 degrees Thursday. The announcement was
made at 1.52 p.m. after a bundle of criticism from players for playing
on such extreme conditions. The forecast top for Melbourne on Thursday
is 44 degrees.Play on all outside courts were suspended until 6:00 to
resume, but in the center court Rod Laver and Hisense Court,Abercrombie Cap-AF30048 the
matches could sustain as the roofs are closed."Today for sure I was
lucky to play indoor. I saw a lot of matches in the morning that they
were not very lucky than me. Today was really hard. Even indoor was
ridiculous," said the Polish. "Everybody talk about it. We kind of
trying to prepare for that weather and doing everything we can to
survive those matches."Former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, the 10th
seed, defeated American player Christina McHale 6-0, 1-6, 6-2.
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