If Rafael Nadal was shaky, Roger Federer was magnificent in winning through his third round at the Australian Open 2010 tennis. The World Number One beat Albert Montanes of Spain in straight sets with a break of serve in each – 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
Federer did not have to face a single break point in a match where his serve was solid and his ground shots high class.
Montanes, as so many of Federer’s opponents are apt, seemed to lift his game, leading the Swiss to comment, after the match, that “I expected him to miss a bit more”
This led to a closer match than perhaps many had expected – in the second set, the scores were 4-4 before Federer converted his only break point of the set. In the third, however, the top seed showed his class by breaking at the first opportunity and serving out for the match.
Federer will face an altogether more difficult challenge against home hopeful Lleyton Hewitt who was cruising to victory against Marcos Baghdatis when the Cypriot retired through injury. The score was 6-0, 4-2 at the time. Both Hewitt and Federer will be fresh, following straightforward passage to this stage.
In This Story: Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually over the last fortnight of January at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.
Rafael Nadal is a Spanish professional tennis player currently ranked world No. 2 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Nadal has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the second-most in history for a male player, as well as 35 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 21 ATP Tour 500 titles and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles and the 2016 Olympic gold medal in doubles. In addition, Nadal has held the world No. 1 ranking for a total of 209 weeks, including being the year-end No. 1 five times.
In majors, Nadal has won a record twelve French Open titles, four US Open titles, two Wimbledon titles and one Australian Open title, and won at least one Grand Slam every year for a record ten consecutive years (2005–2014). Nadal has won 85 career titles overall, including the most outdoor titles in the Open Era (83) and a record 59 titles on clay. With 81 consecutive wins on clay, Nadal holds the record for the longest single-surface win streak in the Open Era.
Nadal has been involved in five Davis Cup titles with Spain, and currently has a 29-win streak and 29–1 record in singles matches at the event. In 2010, at the age of 24, he became the seventh male player and the youngest of five in the Open Era to achieve the singles Career Grand Slam. Nadal is the second male player after Andre Agassi to complete the singles Career Golden Slam, as well as the second male player after Mats Wilander to have won at least two Grand Slams on all three surfaces (grass, hard court and clay).
Spain, a country on Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, includes 17 autonomous regions with diverse geography and cultures. Capital city Madrid is home to the Royal Palace and Prado museum, housing works by European masters. Segovia has a medieval castle (the Alcázar) and an intact Roman aqueduct. Catalonia’s capital, Barcelona, is defined by Antoni Gaudí’s whimsical modernist landmarks like the Sagrada Família church.