Fri Jan 18 02:36:42 2008

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Nadal fights off Simon to advance in Melbourne

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Melbourne, Australia (Sports Network) - Second-seeded Spaniard Rafael Nadal fought off six set points early on and beat 28th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3, to advance to round four at the Australian Open.

The reigning three-time French Open champion and two-time Wimbledon runner-up Nadal faced a stern test against Simon, in a match that lasted nearly 2 1/2 hours at Laver Arena despite going just three sets.

That's because the first set lasted 70 minutes as Nadal fought off the six set points. He was down 5-4 and 0-40 in the 10th game before coming through with big shots and then finally won the set when Simon was long on a return.

It was fortunate that Nadal won the first set. He is now 52-1 at Grand Slam tournaments when winning the opening set, but 7-11 when he doesn't.

Nadal breezed through the second set, but had a difficult time closing out the match, finally ending it with a forehand lob, but not before Simon had saved four match points.

Fourth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko also won his third-round match, as he easily dispatched Marc Gicquel of France, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. It was Davydenko's third consecutive straight-set win, all coming over Frenchmen.

Davydenko has reached the Australian Open quarterfinals three years in a row and next battles 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth round.

Additional third-round wins came for France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Russia's Youzhny. Tsonga earned a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Spaniard Guillermo Garcia- Lopez, while the 14th-seeded Youzhny had no problems in a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 victory over 20th-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic.