MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)—Rafael Nadal has a new injury—a tendon problem
in his right knee that nearly prompted him to forfeit a first-round match at the
Australian Open on Monday that he went to win handily.

Roger Federer, defending champion Kim Clijsters and top-seeded Caroline
Wozniacki, also bothered by injuries coming into the tournament, all advanced to
the second round in more routine fashion and appeared as if they were over their
ailments.

That wasn’t the case with Nadal. Bothered by a left shoulder injury late
last year, Nadal had his right knee heavily taped during his 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 win
over Alex Kuznetsov.

“I was sitting on a chair in the hotel, I felt like a crack on the knee …
really strange,” Nadal said. “I stand up. I felt the knee a little bit
strange. I moved the leg like this two times to try to find the feeling. After
the second time, the knee stays with an unbelievable pain completely straight. I
have no movement on the knee.”

“I wasn’t 100 percent sure I would have a chance to play,” Nadal added.

The Spaniard decided to play after an MRI exam showed no major damage, but
he still had concerns going into the match.

“I started with a little bit of a scare at the beginning, and nervous
because I was really disappointed yesterday,” he said. “But after the first 10
games … I started to play with normal conditions.

“The best thing is I felt the knee very well. I really don’t understand why
happened everything, but I am really happy that today I was ready to play and I
played a fantastic match.”

Federer, who pulled out of a tournament in Doha two weeks ago with back
soreness, began the quest for his 17th Grand Slam title—and first since the
2010 Australian Open—with a 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 win over qualifier Alexander
Kudryavtsev.

It was Federer’s 60th win at the Australian Open, and he also has 60-plus
wins at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

The third-seeded Federer took the first two sets and was up a break in the
third before the Russian rallied with a break of serve in the fifth game of the
final set. Federer, however, broke Kudryavtsev in the next game with a backhand
cross-court winner and sealed the match when the Russian hit a forehand wide.

“No problem, I am happy to be 100 percent fit,” Federer said after his
win.

Just as quickly, he batted away speculation about a possibly divisive issue
with Nadal.

Nadal was critical of Federer on Sunday for not speaking out publicly in
support of players who are pushing the ATP for changes in areas such as
tournament scheduling and prize money.

“Things are fine between us, you know. I have no hard feelings towards
him,” Federer said. “It’s been a difficult last few months in terms of
politics within the ATP.

Nadal has “mentioned many times how he gets a bit tired and frustrated
through the whole process, and I shared that with him. It’s normal. But for me,
obviously nothing changes in terms of our relationship. I’m completely cool and
relaxed about it.”

Defending women’s champion Clijsters opened with a 7-5, 6-1 win over
Portuguese qualifier Maria Joao Koehler, showing no signs of the hip spasms
which forced her to withdraw from a tuneup event in Brisbane 10 day ago.

Wozniacki, who injured her left wrist in a quarterfinal loss at the Sydney
International, showed no signs of discomfort while cruising past Australia’s
Anastasia Rodionova 6-2, 6-1 in the last match of the evening on Rod Laver
Arena.

“I got a bit nervous about my wrist in Sydney, but I am happy I could play
full-out tonight,” Wozniacki said.

Li Na, who lost the Australian final to Clijsters last year, earned a 6-3,
6-1 win over Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan. In the first featured match of the
tournament, third-seeded Victoria Azarenka won 12 straight games to finish off
Heather Watson 6-1, 6-0 in 67 minutes on center court.

The Hisense Arena crowd was solidly behind Nadal, particularly the groups of
young women who screamed and whistled when he changed his shirt and yelled “We
love you Rafa” and “Vamos Rafa!” between games. He didn’t give them a chance
to cheer for long, needing only about 30 minutes each to win the final two sets.

Clijsters similarly had an easy time in the second half of her match,
breaking Koehler’s serve in the deciding game of the first set and reeling off
13 straight points to start the second.

She claimed later that the win wasn’t as easy as it looked.

“It was hard to really get a good rhythm out there,” Clijsters said. “I
did feel like I was seeing the ball probably not always as good as I would like
to.”

She said she’d dealt with the “emotions and stress” of her hip injury,
claiming she was lucky even to get a few warmup matches in Brisbane.

Li was a trailblazer for China last year, reaching a Grand Slam singles
final for the first time before losing to Clijsters at Melbourne Park. At the
next major, she won the French Open to become the first player from China to win
a Grand Slam singles title.

“I hope I can go one better this year,” Li said of her Australian Open
campaign. She had a confidence-boosting buildup that included match wins at the
Hopman Cup and Sydney.

Of the six women who can reach the top ranking, eighth-ranked Agnieszka
Radwanska has the biggest task, having to win the Australian title. She had a
battle on her hands just to make the second round, fending off American Bethanie
Mattek-Sands 6-7 (10), 6-4, 6-2 in a three-hour match on Show Court 2.

Other women advancing included No. 16-seeded Peng Shuai of China, No. 20
Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, No. 22 Julia Goerges, No. 26 Anabel Medina
Garrigues of Spain and Eleni Daniilidou of Greece beat 41-year-old Kimiko
Date-Krumm of Japan 6-3, 6-2.

No. 19 Flavia Pennetta, No. 23 Lucie Safarova and No. 28 Yanina Wickmayer
were among the first-round losers.

Most of the local attention Monday was on 19-year-old Bernard Tomic, who
rallied from two sets down to beat No. 22-seeded Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-7 (3),
6-4, 6-2, 7-5. A five-set win over the 2009 semifinalist will no doubt give
Tomic a confidence boost as he attempts to become the first Australian man since
1976 to win the national title.

“Today wasn’t fun, it was torture,” said Tomic, who reached the Wimbledon
quarterfinals last year. “I don’t know how I found the energy to lift, how I
did it, but I thank the crowd.”

Eighth-seeded Mardy Fish, the highest ranked of the U.S. men, had a 6-4,
6-4, 6-2 win over Gilles Muller to progress along with 2009 U.S. Open champion
Juan Martin del Potro, No. 7 Tomas Berdych, No. 10 Nicolas Almagro, No. 13
Alexandr Dolgopolov, No. 18 Feliciano Lopez, No. 21 Stanislas Wawrinka and No.
30 Kevin Anderson.

No. 25 Juan Monaco, No. 28 Ivan Ljubicic and No. 31 Jurgen Melzer joined
Verdasco as other seeded players to lose.