Nadal cruises past Delbonis in straight sets to advance to round 3 in Melbourne

Rafael Nadal had to step up his game a little bit in order to overcome Delbonis and advance to round 3.

Rafael Nadal was set to play Federico Delbonis after his 1st round victory against Dellien. He spoke to the media afterwards saying it was a solid start. Well, today Nadal was more than solid, he was good. Federico Delbonis is not a top 20 player by no means but he can play good tennis at times. The first set that wasn't the case. Nadal looked comfortable and closed out the set with a solid 6-3 result.

The second set was where the main battle was fought. The Argentinian stepped up his games massively and Nadal at times struggled to deal with it. He was always in control but failed to convey his chances which meant he had to go to the tiebreak. There he finally found a way to overcome his opponent and he did winning it 7-6(4). That was it from Delbonis who completely fell apart in the last set while Nadal way flying. A mere 32 minutes was enough for Nadal to win the set 6-1 and the match 3-0.

It was a better showing by Nadal this time mainly because his opponent demanded a higher level of play to be beaten. Nadal is famous for raising his bar with each match and we will see if that will be the case at this years Australian Open.

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