MELBOURNE, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Many a seeded players
advanced into the third round of the Australian Open's men's singles here on
Thursday, including second seed Rafael Nadal of Spain, third seed Nikolay
Davydenko of Russia, fifth seed James Blake, eighth seed David Nalbandian and
former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt.
Nadal had a marathon four-set victory over German
Philipp Kohlschreiber.
In a match that started Thursday night and spilled
over into the early hours of Friday, Nadal downed the unseeded opponent 7-5,6-3,
4-6 and 6-2 and will next play Swiss 31st seed Stanislas Wawrinka.
The Spaniard, believed to be the greatest threat to
Swiss defending champion Roger Federer, stays on track for a possible meeting
with Federer, the world No.1, in the final.
Devydenko sounded a warning when he earned an easy
win over Gilles Muller 6-4, 6-0, 6-3.
A quarter-finalist the last two years running,
Davydenko next confronts Fabrice Santoro, who disposed of fellow Frenchman
Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
The 27-year-old Blake, who won five trophies in 2006
before opening 2007 with a successful title defense at last week's Sydney
International, ousted fellow American Alex Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.
The world No.5 will in the third round play his
countryman Robby Ginepri, who he won in straight sets in 2005 U.S. Open
quarter-final.
If Blake could be through to the fourth round, he
could play Australia's great hope Hewitt, if the later can negotiate a path past
in the third round either Chile's big-hitting 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez or
Argentine young gun Juan Martin Del Potro.
Later Thursday, Hewitt went into the third round with
a four-set win over rising Canadian Frank Dancevic in a much harder-winning
match.
The former world No. 1, now the 19th seed, overcame a
third-set nerve and an unusually high double-fault count to prevail 6-4,
6-4,3-6, 6-4 in two hours and 48 minutes.
The eighth seed, David Nalbandian of Argentina who
fought a hard match in extreme heat in his opening round, beat Ecuador's Nicolas
Lapentti 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, the 13th seed,
defeated Robert Smeets, Australia's another men's singles hope, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Andy Murray of Britain, the 15th seed, the only
player apart from Nadal to lower Federer's colours last year, ousted Spaniard
Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 and 6-4.
