Clay court maestro Rafael Nadal swept to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Juergen Melzer in the second round of the Madrid Open on Wednesday.
Nadal, chasing a sixth title of the season and a fourth on his best surface, was joined in the last 16 by Novak Djokovic, who beat Oscar Hernandez 6-3, 6-3.
The 27th-ranked Melzer failed to carve out any break points against world No. 1 Nadal, losing his own serve four times, and the Spaniard wrapped up the win on his first match point when the dispirited Austrian netted a limp forehand.
Nadal has only lost four times on clay in 152 matches since the beginning of 2005 and won three straight events on the surface at Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome before coming to the Spanish capital.
He begins his quest for a fifth straight French Open crown at the end of this month and will play unseeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber for a place in the quarter-finals.
Djokovic won a second title of the year in his native Belgrade at the weekend after losing in the final of the Masters events in Rome, Monte Carlo and Miami.
The Serbian third seed took a nasty tumble at the start of the second set, slipping on the clay in the new Magic Box Stadium and falling awkwardly. He recovered to break in the fifth and ninth games and sealed victory on his fourth match point when Hernandez went long with a sliced backhand.
Andreas Seppi is the Serb’s opponent for a place in the last eight after the Italian beat Sam Querrey of the US 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
No. 6 seed Andy Roddick lost the first set to German qualifier Tommy Haas, but edged the second set tie-break and grabbed his only break of the match in the third before clinching a 1-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory with his ninth ace.
The American will play Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the third round.
In the women’s singles, world No. 1 Dinara Safina took a first step toward a second consecutive clay court title by battling to a 6-3, 7-6 victory over Li Na.
Russian Safina had to work hard to subdue the gutsy Chinese and set up a third-round clash with unseeded Czech Lucie Safarova.
Russians Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova were beaten in Madrid.
Third seed Dementieva slipped to a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 third-round defeat by former world No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo and sixth-seeded Kuznetsova lost 6-3, 6-2 to Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko in the second round.
Frenchwoman Mauresmo was joined in the last eight by Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder, who ousted eighth seed Nadia Petrova 6-4, 6-7, 7-6.
Russian qualifier Vera Dushevina also reached the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win over Italy’s Francesca Schiavone.
Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, 19, chasing her fourth WTA Tour title of the year, beat Peng Shuai of China 6-4, 6-1 in the second round.
The seventh seed will play Hungarian Agnes Szavay for a place in the quarter-finals.
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