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No sweat for Djokovic

No sweat for Djokovic

01/19/2012 05:56:31 AM

Defending champion Novak Djokovic has continued his waltz through the early rounds of the Australian Open, dropping just six games en route to a straight sets win over Colombia's Santiago Giraldo.

Djokovic, who conceded just two games in his first round match, overcame a slightly sloppy start before marching through to the next round 6-3 6-2 6-1 in 102 minutes in another lop-sided contest on Rod Laver Arena.

He dropped his serve in the fifth game of the first set, but then hit his straps, breaking Giraldo, ranked 56 in the world, twice to take the set and then racing to a 4-0 lead with two more breaks early in the second set.

He closed that out, then broke a rattled Giraldo again in the first, fifth and seventh games of the final set to wrap up another straight-forward win and set up a clash with one-time Wimbledon marathon man Nicolas Mahut, who ousted Japan's Tatsuma Ito in four sets 1-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 6-2.

French No.6 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga booked his passage through to the third round, getting past world No.108 Ricardo Mello 7-5 6-4 6-4 in a match which lasted just shy of two hours.

The 26-year-old Frenchman looked to be struggling early on, falling behind to an early break from Mello, but a double fault from the Brazilian in the seventh game and a brave net approach on break point in the 11th allowed Tsonga to take the first set.

He then broke Mello in the first game of the second set, and while Mello had a chance to get it back on serve in both the eighth and 10th game, Tsonga closed it out.

Broken in the sixth game of the third set, Tsonga looked a little wobbly, but he relied on his big serve, which yielded 15 aces for the match, to consolidate and break Mello in consecutive service games to put himself on the path to a third round clash with Portugal's Frederico Gil.

Gil upset Spanish No.26 seed Marcel Granollers 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-3 to make the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

No.5 seed David Ferrer survived a scare when he was forced to come from two-sets-to-one down against American Ryan Sweeting before winning 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 3-6 6-2 6-3 in a match which lasted three hours and 28 minutes.

Sweeting showed plenty of pluck, coming from a break down in the first set to win that in a tie-breaker and while Ferrer hit back to win the second set, the world No.68 threatened a boilover when he secured the only break of the third set.

Ferrer, a beaten semi-finalist here last year, rallied with three service breaks in the fourth to get it the distance and got the sole break in the fifth when the American double faulted at 4-3.

The Spaniard now plays No.27 seed Juan Ignacio Chela, who eased his way through to the final 32 with a 6-4 6-4 6-3 win over Spain's Pablo Andujar.

Djokovic's compatriot, and No.9 seed, Janko Tipsarevic is also through, seeing off local wildcard James Duckworth in a tight four-setter 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.

Canadian Milos Raonic was triumphant in a 6-4 5-7 6-2 7-5 win over German Phillip Petzschner. Next up is either of the veteran pair Andy Roddick or Lleyton Hewitt.

The campaign of No.32 seed Alex Bogomolov Jr came

 
Photograph Copyright : Getty Images
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