Nadal sees off local favourite

 

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

The Spaniard looked tentative in the early stages of the night-session match at the Rod Laver Arena and only came to life when his 30-year-old opponent served for the opening set at 5-3.

Nadal denied Luczak his chance, although he was aided by a couple of double faults, to break back and force a tie-break which the Spaniard then raced through without dropping a point. It served to suck the challenge out of the Australian who, despite being cheered on by his home fans, had no answer once Nadal found his groove from the baseline.

The 23-year-old reeled off eight of the next nine games as he kept his error count to a minimum.

After committing 10 unforced errors in the first set, Nadal made just six more for the remainder of the match.

The Spaniard combined that with 47 winners and will next play the winner of Tuesday’s contest between Leonardo Mayer and Lukas Lacko, which was rescheduled after persistent rain.

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