Former world No. 1 Roger Federer and his compatriot Stan Wawrinka made the third round of the Australian Open in the men's singles on Wednesday (January 18). In the women's section, veterans Venus Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova also made it to the third round with easy wins although top seed Angelique Kerber survived a second-round scare.
Read: Federer's first round match report
Indians had happy outings in doubles
Indian tennis fans also went home happy as Rohan Bopanna made it to the second round in the men's doubles with his Uruguayan partner Pablo Cuevas. The duo defeated the Latin American pair of Thomas Bellucci and Maximo Gonzalez 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
Sania Mirza also had a field day as she paired up with Czech Republic's Barbora Strycova in the women's doubles to win their first-round game against the British duo of Anna Smith and Jocelyn Rae 6-3, 6-1.
Ageing Federer has to sweat it out
Coming back to Federer, the 35-year-old though won the game against Noah Rubin of the United States in straight sets (7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3)) but the victory did not come easy. He trailed Rubin, 16 years younger than him and ranked 181, 2-5 in the third set before pulling it off in the tie-breaker. The Swiss, who had dropped one set in his first-round win against Austria's Jurgen Melzer, will have to raise his game by quite a few notches if he hopes to lift his fifth Australian Open title. He will meet Czech Tomas Berdychm, ranked 10, in the next round.
Wawrinka overpowered the USA's Steve Johnson 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 while Japan's Kei Nishikori defeated France's Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4, 6-3. Johnson threw a few challenges to Wawrinka, currently ranked four, but they were too inconsistent to defeat him.
Results in women's singles
Venus beat Switzerland's Stefanie Voegele 6-3, 6-2 while Kuznetsova blew away Australian Jaimee Fourlis 6-2, 6-1 in their respective matches.
However, top seed Kerber was tested to the limit by unseeded German Carina Witthoeft. Kerber had a decent beginning as she bagged the first set 6-2 but the 21-year-old won the second 7-6 in tie-breaker (7-3). Keber took the third set 6-2 to survive the scare. She will meet Czech Republic's Kristyna Pliskova in the next round.
