Nadal through after Tomic retires
World number one gets partial walkover into second round meeting with teenage wildcard
Rafael Nadal's Australian Open campaign began in fortunate fashion Tuesday. Not only was the world number one, scheduled to play at night, spared the searing Melbourne heat that had caused a player and a ball boy to faint earlier, but he was also not required to complete his match; Australia's Bernard Tomic retired injured at the end of the first set, which Nadal had taken 6-4.
"I just want to say for Bernard, I hope he really gets better very soon," said Nadal, who was forced to retire at the Australian Open in 2010 during a quarterfinal match against Andy Murray.
The world number one will face another Australian in round two, 17-year-old wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Elsewhere on Day Two, Daniel Gimeno-Traver was defeated in four by 11th seed Milos Raonic while Feliciano López and Fernando Verdasco both advanced with straight-sets victories over Somdev Devvarman and Ze Zhang respectively. Roberto Bautista-Agut also reached round two, dropping just five games against the USA's Tim Smyczek.
In the women's draw, Lourdes Domínguez Lino crashed out against Caroline Wozniacki, mustering just two games against the former world number one. Carla Suárez reached round two with a straightforward win over Vania King and Garbiñe Muguruza, who has risen to 38 in the ranking after her Hobart title last week, scored a solid win over 24th seed Kaia Kanepi.
