The Rafa Slam Roadshow rolled on today as he gave the second of hopefully seven performances at the last stop on the tour - Melbourne.
For Nadal fans, according to the man himself, today's performance was a better all-round effort compared to his first-round win over Marcos Daniel who retired injured trailing the world No.1 6-0 5-0.
"I think I played a solid match. A few mistakes with the backhand, that's all. The serve, my serve improved a lot since the first day. I think I was serving very well today," Nadal said after the match.
Nadal's opponent today, 23-year-old American qualifier Ryan Sweeting came into the match with a full bill of health but walked off with a slightly bruised ego following the 6-2 6-1 6-1 drubbing he received.
As for Nadal, who entered the event feeling a little under the weather, he says the illness has passed and he's improving with each day.
"I had a difficult week last week in Doha, it seems like every day is a little bit better, I don't have nothing, I hopefully [am] totally recovered."
Today's match didn't start at all well for the American who has only made it to the second round of a Grand Slam once previously - at the US Open in 2006. Sweeting double faulted on the opening point and again during the game to drop his serve as big-match nerves took a hold of the challenger. Nadal took the advantage and ran. He closed out the first set 6-2 in just 28 minutes, breaking Sweeting once more in the seventh game.
Any hope of a more promising start to the second set for Sweeting were tossed out the open Rod Laver Arena roof when Nadal broke the American for the third time. The Spaniard raced to a 4-0 lead before Sweeting finally held serve - but it was the only game he'd win for the set.
Source: http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/articles/2011-01-20/201101201295499032324.html
