Rafael Nadal put on a clinical performance early Wednesday to ease past German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 and reach the third round of the Australian Open.
The only former champion left in the men’s draw at Melbourne Park, Nadal is tied at 20 majors with Swiss Roger Federer and No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Both Djokovic and Federer are absent from the tournament.
Nadal needed five match points before sealing victory when Hanfmann sent a forehand long. He will next meet either Russian Karen Khachanov or Benjamin Bonzi of France for a place in the fourth round. She was on and off the court quickly, beating 142nd-ranked qualifier Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-1 in 52 minutes.
The 2021 Wimbledon and 2019 French Open champion dropped just one game in her first-round match, which also took less than an hour, as she bids to become the first Australian woman since 1978 to win the country’s Grand Slam tournament.Next up for Barty will be a match against another Italian, 30th-seeded Camila Giorgi. Win that, and Barty could end up in a fourth-round showdown against defending champion Naomi Osaka.
In other early second-round results on Day 3, two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka beat Jil Teichmann 6-1, 6-2 and will next face No. 15-seeded Elina Svitolina, who was leading 6-3, 5-7, 5-1 when Harmony Tan retired from their second-round match. “It’s always horrible when any athlete gets injured in competition. She played really well and she made it not easy for me,” Svitolina said. “I was a tough match. It’s tough to see a player going out like this.”
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