A furious rant by David Nalbandian stirred up the Australian Open Wednesday, as Rafael Nadal made a timely return to form and Roger Federer reached the third round without picking up his racket. Women's champion Kim Clijsters raced through in just 47 minutes to stay on track for a clash with China's Li Na, and top seed Caroline Wozniacki survived a second-set fightback by former junior doubles partner Anna Tatishvili. Nadal, who has grumbled about injuries and has appeared jaded in recent months, was smiling again after his 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Tommy Haas, which put him into the third round without dropping a set. The Spaniard, moving freely despite a heavily bandaged right knee, was broken in the first and third sets but he always looked in control against the injury-hit German, who has reached the semi-finals on three occasions. “He's a fantastic player and he's had a lot of injuries over the last couple of years and it's great to see him back,” said Nadal, who suffered a dramatic flare-up in his long-troubled knee on the eve of the tournament. “It's much better and I'm happy with how the knee is improving and I played today without any problems,” added the 10-time grand slam winner, who plays Lukas Lacko in the next round. Federer, seeking his first grand slam win in two years, received a boost when Germany's Andreas Beck withdrew from their match with a back problem, giving the Swiss free passage to the third round. The rest will be welcome for Federer, 30, who was forced out of this month's Qatar Open with back spasms and will break Jimmy Connors's record of 233 grand slam wins if he reaches the final. He will next face Ivo Karlovic. But the major talking point was an on-court bust-up involving the combative Nalbandian, who was incensed when a chair umpire refused to allow a critical video challenge near the end of his 4hr 41min marathon loss to John Isner. Nalbandian said the official, Kader Nouni of France, was not capable of umpiring men's grand slam matches after making the contentious call late in the gripping five-setter, which ended 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 10-8. Holding a break point at 8-8 in the deciding set, Nalbandian, a former top-10 player and the 2002 Wimbledon runner-up, asked for a Hawk-Eye video review when umpire Nouni overruled a fault call on Isner's serve. But Nouni told him he was “too late” to request the challenge, according to Nalbandian, who argued for several minutes and called the match supervisor on court. “I mean, it's ridiculous playing this kind of tournament with this kind of umpires. What is this? Why did the ATP do this?” Nalbandian fumed later. “I mean, can you be that stupid to do that in that moment?” Juan Martin del Potro set up a third-round match with Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun, Ukrainian hotshot Alexandr Dolgopolov also went through and Bernard Tomic delighted home fans by beating American Sam Querrey in four sets. In the women's draw, Clijsters brushed past France's Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-0, 6-1, while French Open winner Li dispatched Australian wildcard Olivia Rogowska 6-2, 6-2 to stay on track for a fourth-round meeting with the Belgian. But Italy's Francesca Schiavone followed US Open champion Samantha Stosur out of the tournament when she was shocked by 80th-ranked compatriot Romina Oprandi, who won 6-4, 6-3. “I think it was a really bad match for me,” Schiavone said. “I couldn't play like I was trying to play.” World No. 1 Wozniacki came through in a second-set tiebreaker with Georgia's Tashvili, while Agnieszka Radwanska, Daniela Hantuchova and Jelena Jankovic were among the other seeds to progress. And third seed Victoria Azarenka shrugged off crowd jibes about her unusual screaming as she thrashed local hope Casey Dellacqua for the loss of just one game to remain unbeaten this year. Mardy Fish became the first men's top-10 seed to exit Melbourne Park, though his 7-6, 6-3, 7-6 defeat by Alejandro Falla left a bitter taste in the American's mouth, with the eighth seed suggesting much of Falla's treatment for cramping during a tense third set had been a tactical ploy.
