American ace Andy Roddick laughed off a pair of embarrassing air-shots as he navigated his way into the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday.

Roddick missed two simple ground strokes but still had plenty in reserve as he notched a regulation 6-2 6-2 6-4 win over Germany’s Michael Berrer.

He said: “You know what sucks is when you have to talk about two whiffs as opposed to one. I just didn’t want the first one to be lonely or something.”

He added: “It’s about surviving. It’s giving yourself a chance to play another day. I’ve gotten through enough first weeks now where I know how to manage my way through it a little bit.

“You know, the oldest saying in tennis, and the most boring to you guys is, ‘You can’t win it but you can lose it in the first week’. But there’s not going to be a point in time where that saying isn’t true.”

Elsewhere on the third day, Rafael Nadal put his sluggish first-round performance against Viktor Troicki behind him as he hammered France’s Florent Serra 6-0 6-2 6-2 in just 94 minutes.

Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko is also through to the third round after posting a 6-4 6-0 6-3 win over Frenchman Nicholas Mahut in less than two hours.

He was joined in the final 32 by other seeds Mikhail Youzhny, Gilles Simon, Jarkko Niemenen, Ivo Karlovic and Paul-Henri Mathieu - as well as impressive Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the world number 38 who knocked out British hope Andy Murray on day one.

But there was an early exit for number 11 seed Tommy Robredo, trounced by last year’s quarter-finalist Mardy Fish in straight sets, as well as number 26 seed Stanislaus Wawrinka - who withdrew when down two-sets-to-one against France’s Marc Gicquel.
Source!