As top seeds drag themselves,injuries take the spotlight

Mardy Fish became the first mens top-10 seed to exit Melbourne Park,though his 7-6 6-3 7-6 defeat by Falla left a bitter taste in the Americans mouth,with the eighth seed suggesting much of Fallas treatment for cramping during a tense third set had been a tactical ploy. When you think someone is cramping or ailing physically,you sort of change your game a tiny bit, Fish said. I think it had a significant bearing on the third set,for sure.

Controversy also boiled over on Margaret Court Arena when David Nalbandian fumed at the chair umpire for over-ruling a point and denying him a Hawk-eye challenge towards the end of his four hour,41 minute loss to American John Isner.

Nalbandian stretched

I mean,its ridiculous playing this kind of tournament with this kind of umpires. What is this?, Nalbandian railed after his 4-6 6-3 2-6 7-6 10-8 defeat. What did the ATP do for this? I didnt understand in that situation. I mean,can you be that stupid to do that in that moment?

Former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis also provided the crowd with fireworks when he smashed four racquets in a spectacular fit of pique after dropping serve early in the third set against Stanislas Wawrinka.

Nadals knee,heavily taped after it caused him unbelievable pain on Sunday,held up well under a test from Germanys Tommy Haas,the Spaniard coming through 6-4 6-3 6-4. A positive match,but not that…demanding, Nadal said. We didnt play four hours and a half,five hours. Three sets,so wasnt that tough.

Federer,however,had a much easier day when he advanced without having to lace up his tennis shoes. The Swiss had been scheduled to play Beck on Hisense Arena,ending a run of 52 matches at Melbourne Park on main show court Rod Laver Arena,before he found out his German opponent had withdrawn.

The 16-times grand slam champion,seeded to meet Nadal in the semi-finals,did not even have the chance to warm up. I was just coming for my warm-up hit,so I was completely focusing on the match,saying,Okay,Ill probably have two,three hours to go, Federer told reporters.

Schiavone ousted

WOMENS top seed Wozniacki fought off a second-set wobble to knock out Georgias Anna Tatishvili 6-1 7-6 and the Dane said she felt like she had let her opponent back into the match. The Dane joined Clijsters and Li in the third round,last years finalists rarely needing to get out of first gear in their matches on Rod Laver Arena.

Temperatures were much more comfortable after two days of fierce heat and Clijsters barely built up a sweat as she thrashed Frances Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-0 6-1. I felt like in my first match I didnt really have that rhythm that I would have liked to have, Clijsters said.

Li,was almost as efficient,giving Australian Olivia Rogowska little time to settle and running out a comfortable 6-2 6-2 winner in 62 minutes. Tenth seed Francesca Schiavone suffered a shock defeat,however,dumped out by fellow Italian Romina Oprandi 6-4 6-3. Reuters

Bhupathi,Bopanna toil hard

THE all-Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna had to toil hard for a win while Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek sailed through to enter the second round of the mens doubles event.

Bhupathi-Bopanna fought back from a set down to win 5-7 6-4 6-4 against the Australian pair of Matthew Ebden and Chris Guccione in a battle that lasted an hour and 43 minutes. The fourth seeded Indian duo,which came up with 44 winners against the 23 by their opponents in the match,lost the first set due to four unforced errors.

The Indo-Czech pair,in contrast,outplayed the Aussie combo of Greg Jones and John-Patrick Smith 6-2 6-2 in an hour and 13 minutes.