Nadal and Clijsters Headline Group Advancing on to the Second Round of Australian Open

On day two at the 2011 Australian Open, Rafael Nadal advanced by defeating Marco Daniels in an injury-shortened match. The Brazilian Daniels’ left knee gave out, forcing him to retire from the first-round match. Nadal was very impressive in his short time on-court, as he had gone ahead 6-0, 5-0 prior to the default. Nadal will next play American qualifier Ryan Sweeting who beat Daniel Gimeno, 6-4, 6-4, 6-1.

In the featured match of the night for the Austrailian crowd, David Nalbandian of Argentina beat former number one-ranked Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 9-7 in a feature-length replay of their 2002 Wimbledon final won by the Australian Hewitt. Going into Tuesday’s match, Hewitt led the series 3-2, but had not beaten Nalbandian since a controversial 2005 Australian Open quarterfinal in which the pair bumped into each other purposely on a changeover. After the 2005 match, won in five sets by Hewitt, Nalbandian said he was “not a gentleman”’ and “nobody is friends” with the Australian. Hewitt said Nalbandian was “not the cleanest guy.” There appeared to be no such animosity Tuesday with both players mostly on their best behavior. They shook hands at the end of the 4-hour, 48-minute match. Hewitt’s biggest stumbling block was his inability to convert break-point chances … just seven of 30. Nalbandian was six of 12. Nalbandian, who was cramping at the end of the marathon match, saved two match points on his serve before finishing it at 1:10 a.m. local time with a perfect lob on his first match point.

Andy Murray, the 2010 Australian Open finalist, also advanced when Karol Beck retired with a shoulder injury in the third set of their first-round match. The fifth-seeded Murray, who was leading 6-3, 6-1, 4-2, was the only man to beat Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament last year, the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park.

Other notable men moving on were fourth-seeded Robin Soderling winning in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, over Potito Starace of Italy; number 15 Marin Cilic of Croatia who defeated American qualifier Donald Young, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 to advance; along with number seven David Ferrer, number 10 Mikhail Youzhny; number 11 Jurgen Melzer; number 20 John Isner and Juan Martin del Potro, who defeated Dudi Sela of Israel, 7-6 (13), 6-4, 6-4.

On the women’s side, U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters routed former number one Dinara Safina, 6-0, 6-0. The U.S. Open champion never allowed the 2009 Australian Open finalist to get into the match, placing pinpoint forehands to all areas of the court. When Safina did have an opportunity to return, her many unforced errors gave away the point to Clijsters.

Number two-ranked Vera Zvonareva began her bid to reach a third consecutive Grand Slam women’s final with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Sybille Bammer. Zvonareva lost to Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final and to Clijsters in the U.S. Open final last year.

Ana Ivanovic, was upset in the opening round as she lost 3-6, 6-4, 10-8 to Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova. The 19th-seeded Ivanovic saved five match points before finally going out.

Also advancing on the women’s side were French Open finalist Sam Stosur, the fifth-seeded Australian who beat American wild-card entry Lauren Davis, 6-1, 6-1; number 12 Agnieszka Radwanska, who took six of the last seven games after a medical timeout in the third set to hold off Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5; number seven Jelena Jankovic; number 10 Shahar Peer and number 13 Nadia Petrova.

For more information, visit www.australianopen.com.