Nadal eases ahead on day of domination at Australian Open

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MELBOURNE - Defending champion Rafael Nadal followed Wednesday’s relaxed formbook a day after a crush of 87 matches, powering past Slovak outsider Lukas Lacko 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 to lead a cluster of no-stress wins at the Australian Open.

The second seed took just under two hours to advance, setting the pace for fellow top players Andy Roddick and Fernando Gonzalez.

Nadal, who dethroned Roger Federer in last year’s final, improved to 23-4 winning record at Melbourne Park.

Seventh seed Roddick, appearing fully recovered from a knee injury which ended his 2009 season early, hammered Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 while Gonzalez, seeded 11, beat Turkish qualifying lucky loser Marsel Ilhan of Turkey 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.

Russian Evgeny Korolev also went through with minimal distraction over Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

Wednesday’s schedule was back to a more manageable level after officials were able to catch up after a near-rainout on Monday’s opening day.

On the women’s side, with temperatures warming again to summer levels following a brief cold snap down to 20 degrees Celsius, Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova shrugged off a morning start as the big-match spirit helped her to a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

“I get extra motivation when I play Slams,” said the defending French Open winner and US Open champion from 2004, the first into the third round.

“It doesn’t matter how bad you play, when you come to Grand Slams, it’s like, you just get there, and it’s special. This is what I work for, you just enjoy it so much,” Kuznetsova said.

“To play here even today the first at 11 am, there are still many people. You just have fun - this is for real.”

France’s Marion Bartoli moved through easily over Czech Sandra Zahlavova 6-4, 6-4, while Belgian’s power pair from the US Open - semi-finalist Yanina Wickmayer and champion Kim Clijsters - also won.

Wickmayer put out Italian 12th seed Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 and Clijsters, seeded 15th, came back from 0-3 in the second set to top Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-3, 6-3.

“I feel like, I’m good enough on the day to beat my opponents,” said double Grand Slam winner Clijsters. “It’s not with my best tennis yet, but hopefully I can save that when it’s really necessary.

“Today Tammy was very tricky. I was actually surprised to see she was still playing. But it’s very hard to read her game.”

Britain’s 83rd-ranked Elena Baltacha’s win over Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-2, 7-5 duplicated her career-best showing at a major (third round Melbourne, 2005) and a similar showing at Wimbledon eight years ago.

First-round play concluded at fast rate, with four seeds sweeping ahead in quick straight sets.

Danish number four Caroline Wozniacki beat Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak for the fifth time in their past six meetings through a 6-4, 6-2 decision. Number seven Victoria Azarenka stopped Stephanie Cohen-Aloro with the loss of just two games.

It was the same dominating scoreline for Russian ninth seed Vera Zvonareva, a winner over Slovak Kristina Kucova 6-2, 6-0.

China’s Li Na bet New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic with a similar scoreline.