Rafael Nadal of Spain serves during the second round match of men's singles against Roko Karanusic of Croatia at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Jan. 22, 2009. Rafael Nadal won 3-0 (6-2,6-3,6-2). [Xinhua]

Men's top seed Rafael Nadal was both clinical and combative in his 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 win over Croatia's Roko Karanusic, the Spanish top seed taking only 97 minutes to destroy his opponent.

"I won without any problems today, so that was good," the world No 1 smiled.

Next for him is former world No 2 Tommy Haas.

"The first big opponent, I think," Nadal said. "It is gonna be a very good test to see how I am. I am going to have to play very well if I want have chances to win, no?"

Last year's runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga completed a great day for French tennis when he beat Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-2.

Tsonga showed no signs of the back injury that forced him to pull out of a warm-up event in Sydney last week as he wore down his opponent.

It has been 81 years since a Frenchman won the Australian Open singles title but five Frenchmen are through to the third round this year. Fabrice Santoro, the oldest man in the tournament, progressed on Wednesday, while Gilles Simon, Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils also won Thursday.

Women's fourth seed Elena Dementieva extended her winning streak to 12 matches with a comfortable 6-4, 6-1 victory over Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic.

Dementieva, who is unbeaten in 2009 after claiming the Auckland and Sydney titles, admitted after her first round victory over Kristina Barrois that her run of matches had left her a little fatigued.

The world No 4 made 23 unforced errors and served five double faults on the second show court but was still too strong for 35th-ranked Benesova, wrapping up the match in 72 minutes.

"Well, I'm not thinking about my chances. I'm really enjoying the way I'm playing right now. Just want to go as far as I can, just enjoy every single match I play here," she said.

(Agencies via China Daily January 23, 2009)