Former champion Rafael Nadal showed no signs of discomfort from his thigh strain as he sailed through to the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 win over local hope James Duckworth on Monday.
The first meeting between the 17-times Grand Slam champion, a winner at Melbourne Park in 2009, and Australian wildcard Duckworth, who is ranked 238 in the world, always had the potential to be an uneven contest.
The second-seeded Spaniard had pulled out of the Brisbane warm-up with a thigh strain to raise doubts about his campaign but he allayed those fears on Rod Laver Arena against an error-prone opponent.
The Spaniard, who will next meet the winner of Australian Matthew Ebden's contest with Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany, broke Duckworth six times while surrendering his serve twice and brought an end to the match with a brilliant crosscourt winner.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.