• Australian Open, Day Three

Roddick reaches third round for ninth time

Andy Roddick shows his relief after coming through a challenging first set against Igor Kunitsyn © Getty Images

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Australian Open women's round-up:
Classy Henin too good for Baltacha

Andy Roddick progressed to the Australian Open third round with a straight sets victory over world No.99 Igor Kunitsyn but not before a testing first set.

The 7-6 6-2 6-3 win ensured Roddick survived the first two hurdles in Melbourne for the ninth consecutive year - an astonishing record - as Kunitsyn threatened early before losing belief after he lost a tense tie-break 9-7.

Roddick said: "I thought he played well. He was very convinced of his game plan and executed it well. I don't think he wanted to settle into long points. He was taking the first ball, going up the line with it. It was very high risk, but he was converting for pretty much all the first set. So I definitely wasn't comfortable early on in that one."

Novak Djokovic survived a scare to progress to the third round with a 7-5 6-7(8) 6-0 6-2 victory over a determined Ivan Dodig. The third seed struggled to find a way through, before edging a tight first set with a late break, but the world No. 81, refused to lie down and levelled the scores after triumphing 10-8 in a tiebreak.

Djokovic's superior fitness proved decisive, as the 2008 champion eased through the third set before wrapping up the victory after three hours and 20 minutes on court. Djokovic will now face compatriot Viktor Troicki in the third round after the Serb came through to beat Nicolas Mahut 6-4 6-2 1-6 6-3.

Fernando Verdasco performed an escape act of Houdini proportions as he came back from two sets down to eventually come home over the top of Janko Tipsarevic. The ninth seed took nearly four hours to record a taxing 2-6 4-6 6-4 7-6 6-0 marathon win over the Serbian.

Physical conditioning definitely came into play as Tipsarevic expended his last energy to force the fourth-set tie-break, but Verdasco claimed that 7-0 before winning all but five points in the decider.

Sixth seed Tomas Berdych also had a slow start but he soon recovered to take down Philipp Kohlschreiber 4-6 6-2 6-3 6-4. World No.35 Kohlschreiber edged Berdych in the serve statistics but his 48 unforced errors, nearly double Berdych's 25, proved the difference.

Gael Monfils needed four sets to see off Portuguese world No. 91 Frederico Gil. The No. 12 seed sailed through the opening two sets, only to be upended in the third, before wrapping up a 6-4 6-3 1-6 6-2 win after two-and-a-half hours on court. Monfils will now meet Stanislas Wawrinka, who survived a tricky test against young hotshot Grigor Dimitrov to win in straight sets 7-5 6-3 6-3 .

Ivan Ljubicic beat Benoit Paire in four sets to go through but fellow seed Mardy Fish tumbled out, going down 1-6 6-3 6-3 6-3 to Spain's Tommy Robredo.

There were further minor upsets as Juan Monaco lost 6-4 6-4 3-6 6-2 to Robin Haase and Xavier Malisse got the better of No. 25 seed Albert Montanes 6-4 6-0 6-1.

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