It was a Saturday night at the Australian Open that saw reigning champion Victoria Azarenka and world No. 1 Rafael Nadal send a warning out to their respective fields.
Victoria Azarenka, the two-time defending champion in the women’s singles, breezed through a blink-and-you-miss 6-1 6-0 win over Austrian Yvonne Meusburger.
It was as clinical as it gets for Azarenka with the second seed making it 17 consecutive wins at the Grand Slam of Asia-Pacific.
The Belarusian wrapped up the opening set in 37 minutes and the second in just 23.
Meusburger, thrust onto centre court due to the big name at the other end, could not get out of the building quick enough.
The match was done and dusted in an hour.
“It was a workout,” Azarenka said, though the media found that hard to believe. “It was just a good performance I think from me. You know, I felt like I started well and I kept that momentum throughout the match and that’s what I wanted to do today.”
Azarenka’s attention quickly turned to the next round meeting with up and coming American Sloane Stephens, which promises to be a much tougher task for the title holder.
“Sloane is a great player, very tough competitor,” Azarenka said. “She has a great record here. I feel like she has improved so much. So, you know, I’m excited about that match. It only gets tougher from here.”
Nadal was also in a menacing mood, cruising through to the next round with a 6-1 6-2 6-3 stomping of disappointing Frenchman Gael Monfils.
It took the Spaniard a little over two hours to complete the rout.
As he so often does, Nadal pulled the strings, dictated the terms of play and let his opponent make all of the mistakes.
Monfils had a sloppy 57 unforced errors – brought about by an inability to find a way past Nadal at the baseline.
“Tonight I think I played a great match,” Nadal said. “Very happy with the way that I played against a tough opponent like Gael.”
Asked if he is feeling like he is in unstoppable form, Nadal put the win into perspective: “Just one very good day”.
Nadal moves through to face Japan’s Kei Nishikori.
