By Lisa Marie Burrows
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, two of the key protagonists in the men’s game, made it through to the fourth round of the Australian Open Friday in straight sets. Rafael Nadal defeated the 119th-ranked Lukas Lacko 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 and Roger Federer sparkled in his match, dispatching of Croat Ivo Karlovic 7-6, 7-5, 6-3.
The No. 2 seed Nadal, showed glimpses of his magnificence on court during his match against the Slovakian, as he tried to capture the form of old to lift the Australian Open trophy for the second time in his career. From the on-set, the Spanish left-handed player drilled through his groundstrokes, showing no sign of discomfort with his recent injury concerns and heavily taped up knee. He broke Lacko in his first service game to love, but the Slovak player hit back and Nadal failed to consolidate the break. This did not discourage the Spanish No.1 as he broke once again and served out the set at 5-2.
The qualifier was forced to chase down the ball as Nadal used all angles of the court to wear down his opponent and was successful in breaking serve a further six times.
The world No. 2 will now face compatriot Feliciano López after he beat American John Isner 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-7 (0), 6-1 on Hisense Arena.
Federer had a potentially tricky encounter against one of the tallest men on the circuit, Ivo Karlovic, to secure his 999th match on Tour. Having met on ten occasions, Federer led the head-to head 9-1.
The first set was tight for the No. 3 seed and he was stretched to a tiebreak against the big serving 6’10” giant, which saw the Croat dissipate a set point opportunity. The 16-time Grand Slam tournament champion, did not waste his first golden occasion and snatched the point for the first set advantage in 53-minutes.
For Federer, the magic as always was flowing through his racquet and particularly on the backhand side, which appeared to be the targeted wing by the Croat. Speedy serves dominated the contest throughout the second set and the super-cool Swiss saved a break point in the second game, but took his chance in the 12th game against the 57th-ranked player to secure the second set 6-4. One break of serve was all that was needed in the third set to clinch the victory in 2 hours and 17-minutes.
In the end, it was a comfortable win for the 30 year old Swiss Maestro and he will now face Bernard Tomic in the last 16 after his long five-set crusade on Rod Laver Arena against Alexandr Dolgopolov 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 2-6, 6-3.
Juan Martín Del Potro did not need to battle as hard, as he defeated Yen-Hsun Lu in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, 6-0 and he will now face Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber on Saturday after he beat Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-3 6-2 7-6 (7-3).
No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych was also successful in straight sets during his third round match against South African Kevin Anderson. He knocked out the 30th seed 7-6, 7-6, 6-1, whilst on Show Court 2, 10th seed Nicolas Almagro progressed into the fourth round with an impressive 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.