Madrid - Third seed Novak Djokovic provided the warm-up act for the Madrid Masters clay debut of Rafael Nadal as the Serb squeezed out a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Oscar Hernandez Wednesday. Nadal, Spain's national tennis hero, was putting his 30-match clay win streak on the line in a second-round clash with Austrian Jurgen Melzer.
World number one Nadal has gone 147-4 on the dirt over the past four years, standing 25-1 in clay finals.
Djokovic called for repairs in the opening stages of the second set after he failed to find his footing on the fresh clay, the condition of which has drawn some criticisms during the event's opening edition.
The chair umpire brought out a grounds crew which quickly rectified any imperfections and let Djokovic get on with the job.
He finally put out the 65th-ranked Hernandez in just over 90 minutes with three breaks from 12 opportunities and 28 unforced errors almost balanced by 23 winners.
Djokovic is fighting to recover his long-time third ranking after Andy Murray stole it from him at the start of the week.
The Serb, who won his home event last week in Belgrade, next faces Italian Andreas Seppi, who beat American Sam Querre 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Fifth seed Juan Del Potro won through into the third round when Czech Tomas Berdych quit trailing 6-2, 4-1. The Argentine next plays Swiss 11th seed Stanislas Wawrinka, a winner over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, 6-4, 7-5.
Number eight Giles Simon of France ousted Italian Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-2.
Women's sixth seed Svetlana Kusnetsova could not maintain consistency after winning Stuttgart and losing the Rome final to Dinara Safina over the past fortnight.
The Russian was upset by Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine 6-3, 6-2.
Seventh seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus stopped Peng Shuai 6-4, 6-1 while Russian Vera Dushevina beat Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
