World No.1 Rafael Nadal has ended local teenager Thanasi Kokkinakis’s impressive Australian Open campaign with a straight-sets second-round victory at Melbourne Park.
Nadal joined four-time champion Roger Federer in the last 32 with a 6-2 6-2 6-4 win on another blazing hot day at the season-opening grand slam.
The Spanish top seed advances to a third-round encounter with either 25th seed Gael Monfils, the Frenchman he beat in the Doha final two weeks ago, or American youngster Jack Sock.
Like Nadal, who enjoyed the cooler indoor conditions at Rod Laver Arena, Federer too escaped the brutal heat to comfortably reach the third round for the 15th year in a row.
Playing in relative luxury under a closed roof at Hisense Arena after the extreme heat policy was enforced earlier on Thursday, Federer breezed to a 6-2 6-1 7-6 (7-4) victory over Slovenian Blaz Kavcic.
It was the first time in a decade Federer was forced to play a match outside Rod Laver Arena, but it didn’t bother the Swiss master as he blasted 11 aces and broke Kavcic’s serve six times to advance in less than two hours.
The sixth seed next faces either Spanish 31st seed Fernando Verdasco or Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili on Saturday for a spot in the last 16.
French 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Japanese 16th seed Kei Nishikori progressed earlier in the day in more testing conditions as baking temperatures prompted tournament officials to invoke the extreme heat policy.
Tsonga defeated Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 6-4 – also at Hisense Arena – where the roof was closed after the opening set of their match.
Bellucci said he thought the entire match should have been played indoors, given the forecast of 44 degrees in Melbourne.
The South American qualifier had already toiled away for four matches to scrape into the second round and admitted to being a virtually a spent force even before walking on court.
“When I lost the first set, it was very hard for me to win three more sets so I was just playing because I didn’t want to retire,” Bellucci said.
Tsonga, who will meet either countryman Gilles Simon or Croatian Marin Cilic in the third round, had no such concerns, saying the conditions were more difficult for him in his first-round match on Tuesday.
“Of course it was hot, but today I had good feelings,” he said.
“He played qualies, he had a tough match two days ago and I just play one match … and I’m maybe physically pretty good.”
Nishikori battled Serb Dusan Lajovic on an outside court to win 6-1 6-1 7-6 (7-3) to book a date on Saturday with either Italian 25th seed Andreas Seppi or American Donald Young.
