Roger Federer: moves to third round

Roger Federer overcame some feisty resistance from Alexandr Dolgopolov to safely advance to the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-3 7-5 6-1 victory on Wednesday.

The Swiss third seed had romped through the opening set of their second round clash on Rod Laver Arena in just 26 minutes before the 27-year-old Ukrainian started to assert pressure on Federer’s serve in the second.

Federer held firm before applying some pressure of his own, eventually breaking the world number 35 in the 11th game before serving out the set in 45 minutes.

Dolgopolov’s resolve faded away in the third, with Federer breaking his opponent’s serve three times to clinch the contest in 93 minutes and maintain his quest for a fifth title in Melbourne.

“Conditions are extremely quick, so you’re not going to find much rhythm,” said Roger Federer. “I thought I served great.”

Japan’s number one, Kei Nishikori has also qualified for the third round, beating Austin Krajicek, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3.

Dominic Thiem, David Goffin, Frenchmen Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Czech Tomas Berdych, Marin Cilic, Grigor Dimitrov have also qualified for the third round.

Serena Williams: Had an easy second round

World number one, Novak Djokovic is on court for the last match of the day, against Frenchman Quentin Halys, ranked 187th in the world, who created an upset by beating 29th ranked Croatian Ivan Dodig in the first round. Djokovic had taken the first set 6-1 at the time of this report.

In the women’s category, Serena Williams was still in demolition mode as she beat Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei 6-1 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena, to keep alive her hope for a 7th Australian trophy.

Maria Sharapova is also on course.She beat Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2 6-1.

Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko caused an upset with a 6-1 7-5 win over Russian 23rd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, winner of the Sydney title last week.

Agnieszka Radwanska also thrashed Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard, 6-4, 6-2. Carla Suarez had to come from one set down to beat, Maria Sakkari, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2.

Lauren Davis, Roberta Vinci, Belinda Bencic are all still in the race. Davis won the first set tie break, before her opponent, Magdalena Rybarikova, retired with injury.