MELBOURNE: Rafael Nadal looked in ominous form as he powered into the Australian Open third round with a straight sets victory Wednesday, a workout he deemed “very important” in his return from a knee injury. Spain’s world Number 1 only dropped serve once in a dominant performance as he reeled off a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) victory over 52nd-ranked Argentine Leonardo Mayer in 2hr 38 min on Rod Laver Arena. Nadal, a losing finalist to Roger Federer last year in Melbourne, will face Bosnia-Herzegovina’s 28th seed Damir Dzumhur in the third round. It was a masterly performance from the 16-time Grand Slam champion, who conceded only 10 unforced errors, stacked up against his 40 winners. “It was an important victory for me, he’s a tough opponent,” Nadal said. “Leonardo is a player with big potential, he hits the ball so strong and you could see in the last couple of games how tough was he. I had to hit some great shots in the tie-break, he’s a very dangerous opponent.I am happy to be in the third round after being out of competition for a while, a second victory in a row is very important to me.” He now faces Dzumhur in the next round on Friday, when temperatures are forecast to hit 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), with Nadal urging organisers to shut the roof on the stadium he plays on. “The only thing that I hope, if it is extreme conditions, I hope the organisers shut the roof. I think is a health issue,” he said. “Even I like sometimes to play when it’s hot. When it’s too much, it becomes dangerous for the health.” Dzumhur was a tough opponent, he added. “He’s a tricky one. The only way to win is play in a high rhythm than him and try to play aggressive, try to put the highest intensity possible out there. That’s what I going to try.” Mayer played well and stuck to his guns, hitting 48 winners offset by 33 unforced errors and breaking serve for the only time in the match as Nadal was serving out to win, forcing the third set into a tiebreaker. “He played a great game, all the returns in, very long, playing so aggressive, hitting all the balls super strong, and having success,” Nadal said of Mayer. The win took the 31-year-old Spaniard’s Australian Open record to 53-11 as he chases his second Australian title after beating Federer in the 2009 final. Nadal, who is gunning for a 17th major title, was hampered by a knee injury at the tail-end of the 2017 season. It forced him to skip the lead-up Brisbane International this month, and he only had a one-match workout at the exhibition Kooyong Classic in Melbourne ahead of the Open. Nadal needs to reach the quarter-finals to be certain of retaining his world number one ranking after the Australian Open, with Federer breathing down his neck. Published in Daily Times, January 18th 2018.