For the briefest of whiles, it appeared we had a match on our hands. But then, Rafael Nadal needed only that much time to get into his rhythm. Once he got his eye in, the winners flowed thick and fast from his racquet.
American Rajeev Ram's hopes went up in smoke as quickly. The swirling winds and a light drizzle notwithstanding, the top-seeded Nadal was on cruise mode, scoring a lop-sided 6-2, 6-1 second round win in the $436,000 Chennai Open at the Nungambakkam Tennis stadium here on Thursday.
In the quarterfinals, Nadal takes on his friend and hitting partner Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who scored a shock 4-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) win over seventh-seeded Werner Eschauer of Austria in another pre-quarterfinal encounter.
Nadal did begin with a love game, but even before the cheers in the stands could die down, American Ram, born to Indian parents, was on level terms, serving consistently over the 200-kmph mark. Nadal couldn't get a look-in at Ram's serve at all.
When Ram took the world No 2 to deuce in the third game, the goodly crowd could be pardoned if it thought there sure was a contest on cards. However, Nadal had other ideas. The top seed upped his game a couple of notches to not only silence the vociferous crowd, but dash his opponent's slim hopes as well.
With his forehand beginning to find the angles and the lines with regularity, Ram was reduced to a mere spectator on court. The American, basically a serve and volleyer, was passed repeatedly at the net. A trademark forehand down-the-line winner gave Nadal the break in the fourth game.
Thereafter, it was Nadal who called the shots. Agreed, Ram came up with a coupe of volley winners and troubled the three-time French Open champion with his huge serves, but he just didn't have the weapons to check the marauding top seed in a rally.
Ram did hold serve in the sixth game, but he couldn't stop Nadal from taking the first set in a mere 30 minutes. After breaking Ram in the second game of the second set, Nadal looked in a bit of bother – for the only time in the match -- in the fifth game of the second set. But it was more due to his errors than any brilliance on Ram's part.
Nadal saved both breakpoints with huge serves. The Spaniard broke again in the sixth game and then wrapped up the match in a little over an hour. "It was windy today and difficult to play," Nadal observed. "But I got away without any problems."
Cilic stuns Mahut
There was no problem for the big-serving Marin Cilic too. The Croatian, credited with two wins over world No 4 Nikolay Davydenko last season, stunned fifth-seeded Nicolas Mahut in a battle of the big servers in the second round in an hour and 24 minutes.
The 71st-ranked Cilic scored a 6-2, 6-4 victory over the Frenchman to set up a quarterfinal meeting with giant-killer Robin Haase. The Dutchman, who ousted second-seeded Marcos Baghdatis in the opening round, encountered few problems in getting past qualifier Lovro Zovko at 6-1, 7-5.
The match never rose to any great heights, but Cilic, like most Croatians, served big and took the chances that came his way to post a surprisingly easy victory. "I struggled a bit after the first set, but got my game going quickly," said an elated Cilic.
Results: Singles (II round): Marin Cilic (Cro) bt Nicolas Mahut (Fra) 6-2, 6-4; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Esp) bt Werner Eschauer (Aut) 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3); Rafael Nadal (Esp) bt Rajeev Ram (USA) 6-2, 6-1; Robin Haase (Ned) bt Lovro Zovko (Cro) 6-1, 7-5.
Doubles (Quarterfinal): Sanchai Ratiwatana/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (Thai) bt Jurgen Melzer/ Alexander Peya (Aut) 4-6, 7-5, 10-3.
I round: Sanchai Ratiwatana/ Sonchat Ratiwatana bt Alexandre Kudryavtsev/ Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) 6-4, 7-5.
