Rafael Nadal didn’t let the much-hyped potential future star of Australian tennis stop him in his quest for a fourth consecutive major title.
Overcoming a mostly parochial crowd of 15,000 at Rod Laver Arena, the top-ranked Nadal had a 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 win over 18-year-old wild card Bernard Tomic in an Australian Open third-round match yesterday. Nadal advanced to a fourth-round match against Marin Cilic, and a continuing date with destiny.
A title at Melbourne Park would make the Spanish star the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam trophies at once, although Laver achieved the true Grand Slam by winning all four in a calendar year.
It wasn’t always easy — Nadal trailed 4-0 in the second set before giving Tomic a clinic in comeback tennis. At 5-5, he broke Tomic’s service, then held in the next game to clinch the set.
Tomic, who upset Fernando Lopez in the second round and is being touted as a replacement for Lleyton Hewitt in the lean tennis fortunes Down Under, tried his best but ultimately was no match for the polished and experienced Nadal.
Earlier yesterday, it was the first game of Andy Murray’s match against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, and the 2010 finalist was doing his best to get into the feel of the third-round match.
Hitting a high lob to the back of the court, he watched as Garcia-Lopez ran it down and, facing the back of the court, hit a between-the-legs shot that passed Murray for a winner.
Instead of marvelling too long at one of the more unusual shots in tennis — like Roger Federer’s similar crosscourt winner against Novak Djokovic at the 2009 US Open — Murray broke the Spanish player’s serve and went on to beat Garcia-Lopez, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.
In other men’s results, No 4 Robin Soderling advanced, as did Marin Cilic, who beat American John Isner in five sets.
US Open champion Kim Clijsters, meanwhile, beat Alize Cornet 7-6 (3), 6-3 of France, getting closer to win her second Grand Slam in a row.
Second-seeded Vera Zvonareva kept alive her bid for a third consecutive Grand Slam final with a 6-3, 7-6 (9) win over Lucie Safarova.
French Open finalist Sam Stosur lost, 7-6 (5), 6-3, to No 25 Petra Kvitova, ending Australia’s hopes in the women’s draw.
No 12 Agnieszka Radwanska beat Simona Halep, 6-1, 6-2, and will next play China’s Peng Shuai, who had a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win over Japan’s Ayumi Morita. Peng, who saved seven break points in the seventh game of the deciding set, will make her first appearance in the fourth round of a Grand Slam.
No 10 Shahar Peer was ousted, losing, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, to No 22 Flavia Pennetta.
Cilic had a 4-6, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), 9-7 win over No 20 Isner in 4 hours, 33 minutes. It was the first five-set match Isner had played since his epic encounter against Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon last year which finished 70-68 in the fifth and was the longest tennis match in history measured by games and elapsed time.
Two former finalists also went out. Marcos Baghdatis, the 2006 runner-up, retired from his third-round match due to a finger injury when he was trailing No 11 Jurgen Melzer, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-1, 4-3.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 2008 finalist, lost 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 to Alexandr Dolgopolov.
Source:AP
