Melbourne, Australia – Roger Federer and Andy Murray were among the winners Thursday as second-round play at the Australian Open came to a close.
Federer, the four-time Aussie Open champ, cruised to a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Russian veteran Nikolay Davydenko, while the third-seeded Murray posted a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Portugal's Joao Sousa.
The second-seeded Federer had little trouble on Thursday with Davydenko, a four-time Australian Open quarterfinalist whose downturn began with a loss to the Swiss superstar in the round of eight at this event three years ago. Davydenko hasn't been past the third round of a Grand Slam since that loss in January 2010.
It was basically one-sided from the start on Thursday, as Federer broke serve once in each set and didn't face a break point during the entire match. Next up for the 17-time Grand Slam champ will be Aussie crowd favorite Bernard Tomic in a highly anticipated third-round match.
"All the talk around it, I don't read the press, so I don't know it's going to affect me," said Federer about facing Tomic. "I think it's important to be confident to a degree. It seems he has that. Now obviously we both have to live up to a big match, big hype, and then we can talk about it afterwards."
The 20-year-old Tomic has been Australia's rising young talent in recent years and has yet to lose this year. He captured his first ATP World Tour title at the Sydney tune-up and on Thursday advanced with a 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (10-8) win over Germany's Daniel Brands.
"He's obviously played a bit more, so he knows more so where he is with his game," Federer continued. "So it's an interesting matchup right now I think for both of us."
Murray, a two-time finalist at the year's first Grand Slam, broke serve five times, swatted 14 aces and fired 28 winners in his victory Thursday. Up next for the Scottish star will be a third-round matchup with Ricardas Berankis. The Lithuanian handled 25th-seeded German Florian Mayer, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.
Other winners Thursday included Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro and Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon.
The sixth-seeded del Potro advanced with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win over Germany's Benjamin Becker and will next meet Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 winner over Spain's Marcel Granollers.
Tsonga, the seventh seed and 2008 Aussie Open runner-up, beat Japan's Go Soeda, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, to reach the third round at Melbourne Park for the sixth consecutive year. He'll next face Slovenian Blaz Kavcic, who outlasted Australian James Duckworth, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 10-8.
The ninth-seeded Gasquet thumped Colombia's Alejandro Falla, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, and will next square off against Croatia's Ivan Dodig, who battled past veteran Finn Jarkko Nieminen, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1.
Simon rebounded after dropping the first set of his match against Canadian Jesse Levine, notching a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 triumph. The ninth seed will next play fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils, who had to rally for a 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 0-6, 6-1, 8-6 win over Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu.
Other winners were Croatia's Marin Cilic, Canada's Milos Raonic and Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.
The 12th-seeded Cilic claimed a 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 victory over American Rajeev Ram and will next play Italy's Andreas Seppi, a five-set winner over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. The 13th-seeded Raonic topped Czech Lukas Rosol, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-3 and will next meet the 17th-seeded Kohlschreiber, who moved on with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 win over Israeli qualifier Amir Weintraub.
Third-round play opens Friday with the top half of the men's draw in action.
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic continues his quest for a third straight Australian Open crown and fourth overall title against Czech veteran Radek Stepanek. Also, fourth-seeded David Ferrer of Spain meets former Aussie Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis and fifth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych takes on Austrian vet Jurgen Melzer.
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