MELBOURNE - Rafael Nadal had to battle all the way for a bruising 7-5 6-3 4-6 6-2 tennis victory over little-known German Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round of the Australian Open on Thursday.
The muscle-bound Nadal has often made tennis look like a contact sport and on
Thursday he was given a taste of his own medicine.
Ranked 61st in the world, Kohlschreiber took little notice of his underdog status and matched Nadal blow for blow, producing bludgeoning forehands from every corner of the court.
Aiming to level the second set at 2-2, Kohlschreiber rammed the ball straight into Nadal. The Spaniard doubled over but not before his tremendous sense of reflex had allowed him to smack the ball over the net.
Stretched face down on the ground, Nadal immediately pushed up on to his hands to see if he had won the point. What he saw was the ball floating past above his head as Kohlschreiber had made the final contact.
Fired up by the audacity of his opponent, Nadal dusted off his bulging biceps and then reacted the only way he knows how -- to come out fighting and after 3-1/2 hours he sealed victory at 0130 local time.
In other matches on Thursday night, fans can look forward to seeing a lot more of a bearded James Blake after he dispatched fellow American Alex Kuznetsov 6-4 6-1 6-2.
"Once I start winning, I don't shave, it's a superstition," the fifth seed, who won the Sydney International title last weekend, told the crowd.
"Once something starts working you've got to stick with it."
British teenager Andy Murray could have done with sticking to the form of his previous match.
The 15th seed, who dropped only one game in the first round, was made to hang around a lot longer for a 7-6 7-5 6-4 win over Spanish left-hander Fernando Verdasco.
Burly Argentine David Nalbandian set up an intriguing third-round showdown against Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean following a 6-4 6-4 6-4 triumph over Nicolas Lapentti.
- REUTERS
