No sweeting for Rafa

World No.1 Spaniard outclasses American qualifier 6-2 6-1 6-1

If Rafael Nadal is getting nervous as he eases closer to winning his fourth consecutive Grand Slam,he sure isnt showing it. After his 6-2,6-1,6-1 win on Thursday over American qualifier Ryan Sweeting,the Spanish star appeared as comfortable talking about his next match against 18-year-old Australian Bernard Tomic as he was in beating Sweeting so convincingly.Hes off to an impressive start at Melbourne Park,conceding only four games in two matches,although his opener against Marcos Daniel was cut short when the Brazilian had to retire with a knee injury trailing 6-0,5-0.The other player looking as impressive as Nadal this week is US Open champion Kim Clijsters,who is fast becoming a favorite for the womens title in the absence of defending champion Serena Williams with a foot injury.

Clijsters dumped former No.1 Dinara Safina out of the tournament in the first round,6-0,6-0. On Thursday,she beat Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-1,6-3. Second-seeded Vera Zvonareva overcame a shaky start to beat Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia 2-6,6-3,6-1.

Jankovic out

After three days of scares but no upsets at Melbourne Park,former world number one Jelena Jankovic,the seventh seed,was dumped out 7-6 6-3 by Chinese upstart Peng Shuai.

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Fourth-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden advanced to the third round with a 6-3,7-6 (1),6-1 win over Gilles Muller of Luxembourg,as did fifth-seeded Andy Murray,who lost in the finals to Roger Federer last year. Murray used 16 aces to beat Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 6-1,6-3,6-3.

Lee-Hesh rally

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi entered the second round of the men’s doubles in Australian Open after they rallied from a set down to beat Ivo Karlovic and Dusan Vemica 5-7,6-3,6-0 in Melboune on Thursday. In another match,India’s Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi outplayed the Brazilian pair of Franco Ferreiro and Andre Sa 6-3,6-0 to advance to the next round. For Paes and Bhupathi,this is their first victory together at Grand Slam after a nine-year gap. The third-seeded pair teamed up together after almost a decade in a bid to add the only Grand Slam title missing in their cupboard.

Clijsters embarrasses Woodbridge over pregnant SMS

Working mother Kim Clijsters took the opportunity to clarify on center court at the Australian Open that she is not pregnant with No.2. Add one more rule to the adage that you should never ask a woman if shes pregnant: Dont text message the question to her friend,either. Former Australian tennis star Todd Woodbridge learned that lesson the hard way. And Clijsters reveled in publicly chiding him,in one of the more amusing on-court interviews at a Grand Slam tournament. The US Open champion had just won her second-round match on Thursday,swiftly beating Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1,6-3,and was greeted by Woodbridge for an on-court interview. You thought I was pregnant? she lightheartedly asked Woodbridge,drawing stadium-wide laughter as she informed him she had seen the text message hed sent to Australian doubles player Rennae Stubbs. Are you? he asked,blushing. No,Im not, she said,leaning into his microphone to broadcast that his message said Clijsters looks really grumpy and more busty than usual. Woodbridge joked that his TV career was now over.