Nadal secures third-round spot
Nadal continues SW19 progress
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Tim Henman's second-round match against Feliciano Lopez was interrupted after just two games of the first set as Wimbledon was hit by another deluge of rain. |  |
Thursday, 28, Jun 2007 08:42
Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal has continued his progress at this year's Wimbledon Championships with a comfortable 6-2 6-4 6-1 victory against Werner Eschauer.
The 33-year-old Austrian veteran had started brightly, utilising the second of the three break points he earned in Nadal's opening service game to take a 2-0 lead in the first set.
Despite looking less than his fluent self early on, 21-year-old Mallorcan Nadal quickly worked his way through the gears, breaking back immediately to level the score at 2-2.
Thereafter, the three-time French Open winner displayed the clinical hitting and sureness of stroke which have made him so difficult to defeat on all surfaces in recent times.
Werner managed to impose a modicum of pressure on this year's second seed in the second set by serving consistently well, but his opponent always appeared to have too much class to be severely threatened.
Despite holding his serve in the opening game of the third set, the brave Austrian eventually succumbed to the increasingly dominant forehand of his opponent.
Nadal's victory means he has edged a step closer to setting up a rematch of last year's final against Roger Federer.
The Swiss number one also secured a comfortable passage to the third round today, finishing off the final set in his rain-delayed match against the young Argentinean Juan Martin del Potro 6-2 7-5 6-1 in just 11 minutes.