The Spaniard Rafael Nadal has produced a clinical performance to reach the fourth round of the Australian Tennis Open in Melbourne.
The men's top seed dispatched Germany's Tommy Haas 6-4 6-2 6-2 in a little over two hours on Saturday night on the Rod Laver Arena.
Nadal describes it as one of his best matches in Australia.
In other men's action, the fourth seed Andy Murray of Scotland lived up to his billing as one of the favourites by seeing off Austria's Juergen Melzer 7-5 6-0 6-3.
Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, James Blake of the USA, Fernando Verdasco of Spain and the French trio of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils also posted wins on Saturday to advance to the last sixteen.
In the women's section, Elena Dementieva, who won the ASB Classic in Auckland, continued her winning start to 2009.
The Russian fourth seed defeated Samantha Stosur of Australia 7-6 6-4 on Saturday night to register her 13th successive win this year and advance to the fourth round.
Others to post wins on Saturday to make it through to the last sixteen were Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, Zheng Jie of China, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, Serena Williams of the USA and Anabel Medina of Spain.
