The Hindu : Sport : Rafael Nadal gets past Stanislas Wawrinka

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Rafael Nadal gets past Stanislas Wawrinka

Nirmal Shekar

Fernando Gonzalez beats Lleyton Hewitt to advance to the fourth round

Melbourne: Before matches, in the locker room, Rafael Nadal cannot sit, or stand, still. His mind is already in the trenches and the Spaniard has to dissipate some energy — spewing forth in volcanic eruptions — going through the motions like the legendary middleweight boxer Jake La Motta used to do in his heyday.

But, make no mistake, this young Raging Bull (the title of Martin Scorsese's classic biopic on the life and times of La Motta, a movie that earned Robert de Niro a Best Actor Oscar) is everything that the Italian-American boxer wasn't — warm, friendly, humane and without a single mean bone in his impressively muscular body.

Not since the tenacious Bull of Pampas, Guillermo Vilas, was in his prime has a tennis player brought such an abundance of energy to the court. Old Guillermo could slug it out till the cows come home, and a wee bit longer, and then party all night long at the local disco. So can Nadal, who advanced to the serious business half of the Australian Open fortnight with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 drubbing of Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in a third round match on Saturday.

The other Swiss — the only one the world cares about or even wants to know of — generally checks into the same court as Nadal only when the silverware is displayed on court. So, the Spaniard is not even looking that far ahead right now, happy as he is to have played himself into the second week of a championship that he was forced to miss last year because of an injury.

Marathon man

On a rain-marred day — matches could be played only indoors in the Rod Laver and Vodofone arenas — when David Nalbandian of Argentina, seeded eight, teetered on the very brink before hauling himself up resolutely to save three matchpoints in the third set and then embark on a steep climb for a 5-7, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-1 defeat of Sebastien Grosjean of France, Nadal, seeded two, matched his best result here (fourth round in 2005).

After losing to Xavier Malisse of Belgium in the semifinals in Chennai, Nadal pulled out of the Sydney event with a minor injury. But, this week, the two-time French champion has improved with each match on a Grand Slam surface (Rebound Ace) that may be best suited to his game after the red clay of Roland Garros.

After a superb first half of the year in 2006, Nadal's game flattened out like water on a tin plate. Soon after his surprising visit to the final of The Championships at Wimbledon, the Spaniard's record was an impressive 42-5. That was early in July. The rest of the season, the second best player in the game was left wondering what went wrong, running up a less than impressive 17-7 record.

Patterned game

While Nadal's form in the hardcourt circuit failed to match the confident, high-voltage tennis he served up through the spring and summer in Europe, what was rather more alarming — from a long-term perspective — was that smart rivals had begun to find novel ways in which to drill holes into his remorselessly patterned game.

Roger Federer said the other day that while Nadal was young enough to try and make adjustments to his game, ultimately what will matter is how well he does.

On Saturday, Nadal played his best match of the new season. There is a bit of a pop to his serve now, compared to last year, and the Spanish hustler is showing a willingness to stay close to the baseline and be a lot more aggressive.

The Nadal forehand, a patented shot with a 360-degree racquet swing, constantly rocked Wawrinka back on his heels. But given the huge backswing, taking the ball early, Agassi-like, is not an option for the Spaniard.

In all three sets, Nadal found two breaks early. Although the match was a lot closer than the language of the scoreline might suggest — there were several long rallies and keenly contested points — in the end it was a satisfying outing for the French champion.

A complete match

"I am improving. I played my best tennis today for sure," said Nadal. "I played a complete match. If I continue playing like this I have a chance to win."

Nobody likes a hard grind like Nalbandian does. For the second time this week, and for the sixth time in his career, the hard working Argentine came back from two sets down to win a match. He fought off three matchpoints in the 12th game for the third set before stamping out Grosjean's challenge.

"Sometimes I am lucky, sometimes I play good. Today I was lucky,'' said Nalbandian. "When you are three matchpoints down, anything can happen."

In the women's singles competition, the top seed, Maria Sharapova, the bookmakers' favourite, Kim Clijsters, and former World No.1 Martina Hingis, all won in straight sets to make the fourth round. But the 13th seed, Anna Ivanovic, went down 1-6, 2-6 to Vera Zvonareva.

AFP adds

Lleyton Hewitt was dumped out of the Australian Open by Fernando Gonzalez in a four-set thriller.

The 10th-seeded Gonzalez was unstoppable in two and a half sets and fought back from losing the third set to oust the 2005 finalist and 19th seed, 6-2, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

``It's always hard to get your nose back in front, I was able to turn it around, but it's always going to be a tough ask with him getting such a big start,'' said Hewitt.

Gonzalez won on his third match point in a tense 10th game as Hewitt tried desperately to stay in the tournament and fought off two match points with brilliant forehand volleys.

But the Chilean got a third chance and he put away a forehand to the top corner to end Hewitt's resistance before a pro-Australian crowd on Rod Laver Arena.

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