Nadal, Keys cruise in Open

Spaniard and the American easily advance in men’s and women’s matches in Australia.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Rafael Nadal and Madison Keys faced little resistance Tuesday in the first round of the Australian Open.

The top-seeded Spaniard overwhelmed Hugo Dellien of Bolivia 6-2, 6-3, 6-0 at Rod Laver Arena and Keys cruised 6-3, 6-1 against Daria Kasatkina of Russia at Melbourne Arena in a women’s match that lasted only 57 minutes.

The 10th-seeded American, a semifinalist at Melbourne Park in 2015, has 21 consecutive victories in firstround matches at Grand Slam tournaments.

For Nadal, who has 19 Grand Slam event titles but only one in the Australian Open, in 2019, it was not much more than a warmup against a player ranked 73rd in the world and who was playing his first match at the season’s first major.

Nadal dropped a service game once in each of the first two sets but was too strong for Dellien, who had played only five matches in the main draw of a major.

“A positive start. What you want in the first round is to win — straight sets is better,” said Nadal, who lost to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in the final last year.

Nadal, 33, is aiming to tie the men’s record for major titles held by Switzerland’s Roger Federer.

Fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria defeated Adrian Mannarino of France in straight sets at Margaret Court Arena.

But for Canadian Milos Raonic, it took two days and a lot of disruptions to advance to the second round.

Raonic was leading by two sets and 5-2 when rain suspended his opener against Italy’s Lorenzo Giustino, a lucky loser from qualifying who got a spot in the main draw when Radu Albot withdrew an hour before the first round Monday.

The 2016 Wimbledon finalist returned on Day 2 to complete a 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 victory.

“To start off in that way, especially not having played a lot of matches, to play a pretty clean match and obviously to come back today and be efficient, all of those things are positive, something I can build off,” Raonic said.

In women’s play, No. 2 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic clinched a 6-1, 7-5 victory with a late service break against Kristina Mladenovic of France in the day’s opening match at Rod Laver Arena.

Pliskova, who lost to eventual champion Naomi Osaka in the semifinals last year, started the season with a title in Brisbane, Australia.

“It’s a new beginning here,” Pliskova said. “The weeks before, nobody really counts and nobody remembers. But I had some very good matches.”

Sixth-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland advanced with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia.

Former semifinalist Johanna Konta of Britain lost 6-4, 6-2 to Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.

It was Konta’s second match since the U.S. Open after being sidelined because of a tendinitis-related injury in her right knee.

American Madison Brengle is done after losing in three sets to Caroline Garcia of France and so is Maria Sharapova, the former women’s No. 1 who got into the main draw as a wild card.

The Russian was defeated 6-3, 6-4 by 19th-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia and hasn’t won a tournament since 2017.

“I always enjoy the big stages,” Vekic said. “I’m happy to leave with a win this time.”