Australian Open 2015 Day 3: Nadal & Sharapova survive

By Alexandra Willis

Wimbledon.com's highlights from the third day of play at the 2015 Australian Open at Melbourne...

Big win

Rafael Nadal d. Tim Smyczek 6-2, 3-6, 6-7(2), 7-5

Rafael Nadal's been here before. Second round of a Slam. Accomplished young player who can hit it tremendously hard. Just swop the grass for hard. But lightning doesn't have to strike twice. And even though he trailed qualifier American Smyczek, playing the match of his life, by two sets to one, that wasn't it for Rafa at Australian Open 2015, despite digging to depths he didn't know he had.

"At the end of the first set, I start to feel my body very bad, very tired. I don't know," Nadal explained. "I was worrying crazy. Then when I was serving for the third, almost throw up. So was terrible feeling, no? I suffered too much on court for three hours and a half. I was suffering a lot. Too much."

Nadal admitted that he was close to not continuing, describing the match as the toughest he had ever played. But he survived, staving off what would have been his first ever defeat at the hands of a qualifier in a Grand Slam. Next up, Dudi Sela.

Maria Sharapova d. Alexandra Panova 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

Down two breaks in the final set of her second round match on Rod Laver Arena to a qualifier ranked 150 in the world, it looked like the No.2 seed was certainly going home. But she has not developed mental strength of steel for nothing. The former champ dug her heels in so tight to RLA that she could well have left imprints, battling back to 4-5, saving two match points, and winning the thing 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 in two hours and 32 minutes.

Roger Federer d. Simone Bolelli 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2

A potential bee sting, and Bolleli's sublime form, got Federer off to rather a different start than he would have wanted. But he rallied from dropping the first set to clean up in four.

The Aussies

Nick Kyrgios has done it again. Ivo Karlovic, the 23rd seed, presented a giant task, literally and figuratively, but Kyrgios, ever the showman, proved he was up to it. Winning 7-6(4), 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, it was slightly extraordinary that he had enough energy left to play tennis, so engaged was he with the crowd. "I guess it's just youth," he said.

Bernard Tomic beat Philipp Kohlschreiber (22)

Let's call him tie-break Tomic. The Aussie won three of the things to knock out the German 22nd seed. Both players hit 67 winners each.

Sam Groth beat Thanasi Kokkinakis 3-6 6-3 7-5 3-6 6-1

A first Australian Open win, and now a first five-set win. It's been quite a couple of days for the big-serving Australian, who showed that age does matter against young gun Kokkinakis.

The (other) upsets

Marcos Baghdatis beat David Goffin 6-1 6-4 4-6 6-0.

Rolling back the years to the 2007 finalist, who ousted the baby-faced Belgian in five tempestuous sets. The plates at Stalactites, the restaurant that Baghdatis famously smashed up after he lost the final in 2007, can rest easy for a little while.

Dudi Sela beat Lukas Rosol

The Czech remains unremarkable, outside of Wimbledon.

Viktor Troicki beat Leonardo Mayer

Djokovic's good friend marches on.

Cruising through

The following won in straight sets…

Ekaterina Makarova (d. Roberta Vinci), Simona Halep (d. Jarmila Gajdosova), Andy Murray (d. Marinko Matosevic), Sara Errani (Silvia Soler-Espinosa), Eugenie Bouchard (d. Kiki Bertens), Peng Shuai (d. Magdalena Rybarikova), Yaroslava Shvedova (d. Monica Puig), Richard Gasquet (d. James Duckworth), Tomas Berdych (d. Jurgen Melzer), Carina Witthoeft (d. Christina McHale), Caroline Garcia (d. Stefanie Voegele), Bethanie Mattek-Sands (d. Kristina Mladenovic), Irina Camelia Begu (d. Kateryna Siniakova), Kevin Anderson (d. Ricardas Berankis),

Shortest match

51 mins: Carina Witthoeft d. Christina McHale 6-3, 6-0

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