Nadal eases through against Croatian

The usual approach is strictly "one match at a time" but Rafael Nadal is far from
usual.
The world's number one tennis player had barely cooled down from his second round
exertions at the Australian Open on Thursday before he was talking not only about
winning the first grand slam of the year, but also the last.
Nadal had little more than a light workout during the 97 minutes it took him to beat
the "irregular" Croatian Roko Karanusic 6-2 6-3 6-2.
"Was a good result today," Nadal said.
"The other guy play very, I think, irregular.
"Sometimes play well, sometimes he had some mistakes.
"So it was tough match for me to get the rhythm.
"I think I won without problems."
So much so that he allowed his thoughts to turn to not only winning the Australian
Open, but also the other grand slam that has so far eluded him, the US Open.
Nadal led the world in wins on hard courts last year, although his only grand slam
victories have been on grass and clay.
Those results, he said, had convinced him he could beat the best on any surface.
"Why you can't win a grand slam on hard court, no?" he said.
"I always trying to improve in this surface.
"Hopefully this year I have a chance for win here or win in the US Open."
On a day when the seeded players in men's singles generally performed up to their
ranking, Nadal was joined in the third round by fellow Spaniards Nicolas Almagro
(17) and Fernando Verdasco (14).
Also through were sixth seed Gilles Simon of France who beat Australia's last man in
singles, Chris Guccione 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-1 6-2, his countryman and 12th seed Gael
Monfils who beat Stefan Koubek of Austria 6-4 6-4 3-6 6-2 and yet another Frenchman
Richard Gasquet, the 24th seed, who beat Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-3 6-4 6-4.
Nadal's next opponent is Germany's Tommy Haas, who on Thursday beat Flavio Cipolla
of Italy 6-1 6-2 6-1.
The world No.1 is looking forward to what should be his first serious test of the
championship.
"He's going to be the first big opponent ... going to be a very good test to see how
I am," Nadal said.
"He's a very good player, always for everybody is tough, dangerous."
The only higher seed to flirt with defeat was last year's runner-up Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga, who dropped the first set of his second rounder to Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic.
Tsonga then saved three set points in the third-set tiebreaker that helped push the
match beyond the three-hour mark.
In a battle where the stats favoured no player until the final set, the French fifth
seed won 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (9-7) 6-2.
Tsonga will now play Israel's Dudi Sela in the third round.
Thursday's matches also revealed some intriguing quarter-final possibilities,
including a likely match-up between Nadal and the ever-improving Simon.
Tsonga is on the way to a meeting with fourth-seeded Briton Andy Murray in the
quarters.