Nadal, Berdych Remain On Collision Course

© Getty ImagesRafael Nadal fired 81 per cent of his first serves in play.

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal continued to impress at Melbourne Park, dismissing qualifier Lukas Lacko 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 on Friday to advance to the Australian Open fourth round.

Nadal hit 81 per cent of his first serves in play, winning 85 per cent of those points. He broke Lacko six times to wrap up the victory in one hour and 41 minutes, improving to a 3-0 record against the Slovakian. "I am playing well," said Nadal. "If you are playing well, things can be a little bit less difficult. If you are playing bad, every match will be very, very difficult."

Through three matches, Nadal has lost just 25 games, converting 18 breaks of serve against his opponents. "I've played three matches at very good level," Nadal said. "Today was one of the best. [It was] solid, without mistakes, [I was] comfortable with the serve [and] having good returns."

He'll look to reach his sixth straight Melbourne quarter-final when he takes on his 18th-seeded compatriot Feliciano Lopez, who beat No. 16 seed John Isner of the United States 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-7(0), 6-1 in three hours and 26 minutes.

Seventh seed Tomas Berdych edged 30th-seeded Kevin Anderson 7-6(5), 7-6(1), 6-1 in two hours and 27 minutes. "So far I would say that I'm still not [at] the perfect level or the level that I ended the season last year," admitted Berdych. "I still have [room] for improvement, which is good."

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Berdych is into the round of 16 for the fifth time. He'll look to replicate his 2011 quarter-final performance when he faces 10th-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, who knocked out Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the fourth round for the third year in a row.

Almagro converted six breaks of serve to defeat the No. 21 seed for the first time since the 2007 Heineken Open in Auckland.