Nadal breezes through at Indian Wells

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

INDIAN WELLS, California (Reuters) - Twice champion Rafa Nadal coasted imperiously into the third round of the Indian Wells ATP tournament with a ruthless 6-1 6-3 victory over Argentine Leonardo Mayer on Sunday.

The Spanish left-hander, who has reached the semi-finals at Indian Wells in his last six appearances, broke Mayer twice in each set to wrap up a commanding win in one hour, 15 minutes.

"It's nice to be back playing at the very good level," the Spaniard, who will next face compatriot Marcel Granollers, told reporters at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. "Winning is the most important thing.

"It's not easy to be back after a while without competition, but I did really well. I started the match very focused, very aggressive. I'm very happy about almost everything."

Nadal, who dominated Mayer with his crunching ground strokes from behind the baseline, had not competed since he lost an epic Australian Open final to Novak Djokovic in January.

LOVE AFFAIR

"This is a tournament that I love," said the 25-year-old from Mallorca. "I enjoy a lot playing this tournament. Always in my career I've had good success here. I have played very good matches."

Granollers had earlier booked his place in the third round with a 6-3 2-6 6-3 win against Germany's Tommy Haas.

In other matches, fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer crushed Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-2 6-2, David Nalbandian of Argentina battled past Croat Marin Cilic 7-6 7-6 and Serb Janko Tipsarevic beat Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-4 6-2.

Sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga advanced when fellow Frenchman Michael Llodra retired hurt because of a knee injury when trailing 4-1.

The big-serving Tsonga will next face Czech Radek Stepanek, who crushed Belgium's Xavier Malisse 6-2 6-1.

Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina beat Australian Marinko Matosevic and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan scraped through 7-6 6-7 7-5 against Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela.

(Editing by Julian Linden and Peter Rutherford)