Nadal wins in straight sets

Defending champion Rafael Nadal secured his second straight-sets win to progress to the third round of the Australian Open.

The Spanish second seed needed one hour and 53 minutes to brush aside Slovakia's Lukas Lacko 6-2 6-2 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena.

It was a far more convincing display from Nadal, who showed no signs of the early nerves from his first-round match against Peter Luczak.

Instead, the left-hander raced out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and was hardly troubled thereafter by his 22-year-old opponent, who was playing a top-10 player for the first time in his career.

"I think I played the match that I need to play," said Nadal.

"I was playing and moving well in the beginning without mistakes and I had control of the ball.

"I played more relaxed. The second round always is easier to play. I think I improved a little bit, but I can still play a little bit longer. It was a very good match."

Nadal will meet a seed for the first time in the next round after Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber (27) defeated Wayne Odesnik 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-2.

Seventh seed Andy Roddick also won in straight sets for the second match running as he breezed past left-handed Brazilian Thomasz Belluci 6-3 6-4 6-4 in two hours and 12 minutes.

"I felt good out there today," Roddick said afterwards.

"With him it's a lot of just trying to keep the ball out of his hitting zones because he hits pretty big. I was trying to keep the ball on the backhand side, which is a little trickier because he's a lefty.

"I thought I did a pretty good job of that."

Roddick will play Feliciano Lopez in the third round after the Spaniard overcame 2003 finalist Rainer Schuettler 6-3 2-6 6-3 6-2.

Fernando Gonzalez, the 2007 winner, and Gael Monfils both won for the second day running.

Their first-round matches were postponed to yesterday after rain on the opening day, but neither showed any ill-effects.

Eleventh seed Gonzalez fired 51 winners as he beat Turkey's Marsel Ilhan 6-3 6-4 7-5, while Monfils (12) brushed aside 224th-ranked Croatian Antonio Veic 6-4 6-4 6-4.

Monfils will next play 6ft 9in American John Isner after he ended Irish qualifier Louk Sorensen's dream run 6-3 7-6 (7/4) 7-5.

Sorensen was playing in his first grand slam and became the first Irishman to win a match at a major in the Open era when he beat Yen-Hsun Lu on Tuesday.

The only seed to fall during the day session was Tomas Berdych (21), who lost in straight sets to Evgeny Korolev 6-4 6-4 7-5.