Nadal, Sharapova heat up in third-round wins

MELBOURNE, Australia – Rafael Nadal breezed into the fourth round of the Australian Open today, advancing with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka.

Nadal, who has spent a record 78 weeks ranked No. 2 behind Roger Federer, wasn’t really challenged by Wawrinka until the last point. The 20-year-old Spaniard curled a forehand winner into the right corner on match point, just catching both the side and baseline.

Nadal and Wawrinka walked to the net – the Swiss player challenging the “in” call just for the record – and shook hands when video replays confirmed the ball was good.

Nadal made only 19 unforced errors in 24 games, and dropped serve just once – when already up two breaks in the second set.

He could next play Scotland’s Andy Murray, the only man other than him to beat Federer last year.

Murray was due to play Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in a night match in Margaret Court Arena. That could be delayed after matches on outside courts were suspended because of rain until at least the late afternoon.

All of Nadal’s matches here have been indoors on one of the two courts with retractable roofs, including his opening win over Robert Kendrick on a day when most matches were delayed by eight hours because of extreme heat.

“Maybe one day I can play outside,” he said.

Top-seeded Maria Sharapova got another taste of Melbourne’s fickle weather, ignoring the sauna-like conditions in Rod Laver Arena in her 6-3, 6-1 third-round victory over 30th-seeded Tathiana Garbin.

While heavy rain prevented play on outside courts, the roof on center court was closed and the air conditioning wasn’t working.

The players were already sweating profusely after their warmup, while spectators fanned themselves with programs.

“It was a little steamy in there … humid,” Sharapova said. “I’ve felt cozier in my life.”

It was cooler during Martina Hingis’ 62-minute 6-2, 6-1 win over Japan’s Aiko Nakamura in the next match.

As fast as she was, Hingis lost another race with Kim Clijsters, who beat Alona Bondarenko 6-3, 6-3 in exactly an hour.

The pair, who could meet again in the quarterfinals here, have had a running joke about who can finish off their matches quicker.

Clijsters has been faster in the first three.

David Nalbandian would be well behind in that kind of race.

The eighth-seeded Nalbandian went the distance in an almost 4-hour match, saving three match points in the third set of a 5-7, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-1 win over Sebastien Grosjean of France.

He was a point from a third-round exit at 0-40 and 4-5 in the third set, but rallied to hold serve, then dominated the rest of the match.

Nalbandian also rallied from two sets down to win his opening match in an energy-sapping first-round win over Janko Tipsarevic, who wasted his chance to serve for the match in the third set before retiring with heat exhaustion in the fifth.

Nalbandian’s first match was one of the few being played when Sharapova was on court for her opener against Camille Pin on Day 2 – when most matches were suspended because of the Extreme Heat Policy as temperatures topped 100 degrees.

“I guess I can say I’m still lucky to be in the tournament after my first round,” Sharapova said.