Federer, Sharapova also scale through

RAFAEL Nadal wasn’t the only one who faced a stiff test in a qualifier. Roger Federer came from a set down to take the match in four sets over Simon Bolelli who put up little resistance after taking the first set. 

  Andy Murray of Great Britain didn’t have any such problems as he overcame Marinko Matosevic of Australia in straight sets to advance to the next round. Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic, who announced his engagement to his long time girlfriend, Ester Satorova, gave himself a nice present by beating Meltzer in straight sets. Grigor Dimitrov and Malek Jaziri progressed to the next round also over Lukas Lacko and Edouard Roger-Vasselin respectively.

    Two other matches played yesterday saw Nick Kyrgios of Australia overcoming Ivo ‘Dr Ivo’ Karlovic in four sets. Kyrgios relied heavily on his home crowd and they didn’t disappoint. 

  They cheered him to a massive victory, which saw him facing 40 whooping aces fired by Karlovic and several break points. The youngster held his nerve and composure to finish the match in four sets and progress to the next round. 

  It was a different story for Thanasi Kokinakkis, as he fell to fellow compatriot, Sam Groth, after five grueling sets.   Australian, Bernard Tomic pulled an upset by taking out the 22nd seed, Philip Kohlschreiber, in four tight sets.

 In the women’s game, World No 2 Maria Sharapova avoided an early exit in her second round match by saving 2 match points against qualifier Panova. Shuai Peng, Sara Errani, Eugenie Bouchard, Karolina Pliskova, Hradecka (who stunned Ana Ivanovic in her 1st round match) all progressed easily into the next round. Bethany Mattek-Sands stunned Kiki Mladenovic in straight sets to progress to the next stage.

      Friday’s action will feature Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Serena Williams and Petra Kvitova in a lineup that promises to be very entertaining.