Wed Jan 16 01:11:58 2008

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Nadal advances in Day 3 at Melbourne

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Melbourne, Australia (Sports Network) - Spain's Rafael Nadal had an easy time as he advanced to third round with a straight-set win in Day 3 at the Australian Open.

Nadal had no problems dispatching France's Florent Serra with a 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 win in just one hour and 34 minutes.

In the upset of the day thus far, Spain's Tommy Roberdo was easily handled by American Mardy Fish 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.

Russia's Mikhail Youzhny, the 14th-seed, bounced back from a first-set loss to defeat Italian Andreas Seppi a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

In other seeded action, Croatia's Ivo Karlovic, the 20th-seed, handled Israeli Dudi Sela 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3, 6-1, France's Paul-Henri Mathieu, the 23rd- seed, defeated Chile's Paul Capdeville 6-7 (5-7), 6-0, 6-4, 6-4 and 24th- seeded Jarkko Nieminen from Finland defeated American Jesse Levine 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (7-2).

France's Marc Gicquel advanced after Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka dropped out in the fourth set with Gicquel leading.

Unseeded players advancing to the third round included Frances' Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Austrian Stefan Koubek.

Other top-seeded players who have yet to take the court on Wednesday included fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, sixth-seeded Andy Roddick and eight-seeded Richard Gasquet.