Melbourne (AFP)
Rafael Nadal easily qualified Tuesday, at the expense of the Bolivian Hugo Dellien (73rd) 6-2, 6-3, 6-0, for the second round of the Australian Open where he is aiming for a 20th Grand title Slam to match Roger Federer.
"It's a good start. The third set in particular was very good, I played at a very good level," said the Spaniard, world No.1.
"In the first two rounds, I was a little more careful: I didn't want to overplay, and at the same time I didn't want to play badly either! I was just trying to be solid, not to make mistakes. I wanted to do what I know I can do, to get in the rhythm. That was my goal at the start of the match. And then, of course, with the scoring advantage, I tried to play at the level where I think I will have to play to make a good result in the tournament, "he added.
He put 2h02 to win, while his great Swiss rival had only 1h21 to pass the first obstacle, the day before in the person of Steve Johnson (75th).
Nadal will face Argentina's Federico Delbonis (76th) or Portuguese Joao Sousa (59th) in the next round.
The defending champion Novak Djokovic won his first game on Monday in 2:16 but yielding a set to the German Jan-Lennard Struff (37th) who undoubtedly represented a tougher opponent.
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