Nadal breezes into third round

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 13:01

There were no signs of the early nerves the Spaniard suffered in his opening-round win over Peter Luczak on Monday night as he this time raced out to a 5-0 lead.

It was enough to overwhelm his 22-year-old opponent who was meeting a top-10 player for the first time in his career after winning his first match at a grand slam against Leonardo Mayer in the opening round.

In front of a near-capacity Rod Laver Arena the Slovakian was clearly nervous as he sprayed a number of groundstrokes wide to lose the first set in 31 minutes.

Nadal hardly allowed Lacko to settle though as he moved him from side to side around the court and the number two seed established an early break in the second set to go 2-0 ahead.

Lacko fought gamely but Nadal had too many tricks and drew the oohs of the crowd with a deft drop shot that his opponent could not have anticipated.

The Spaniard then served out the set with Lacko dropping a backhand into the net.

The third set followed the pattern of the previous two with Nadal securing an early break to ensure he rounded out the match with the minimum of fuss.

Nadal will play the winner of the match between 27th-seed Philipp Kohlschreiber and Wayne Odesnik in the third round.

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