Nadal, Cilic, Tsonga, Kostyuk into Australia Open third round

MELBOURNE, Jan 17 (Agencies): Dominant Rafael Nadal swept into the Australian Open third round to keep his Grand Slam title hunt on track Wednesday, as Caroline Wozniacki pulled off a great escape to stay in contention.

The world number one Spaniard's march towards a 17th Grand Slam crown was never threatened by Argentina's Leonardo Mayer, who took him to a third set tiebreak before being swatted aside 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) on Rod Laver Arena. In contrast to Nadal's easy progress, world number two Wozniacki survived a huge scare against little-known Croat Jana Fett. The Dane saved two match points and rallied from 5-1 down in an epic third set to keep her dream of a first Grand Slam title alive.

She looked out for the count, and was struggling afterwards to work out how she survived 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 against a player ranked 119.

Fourth seed Elina Svitolina also came from a set down to overcome spirited Czech Katerina Siniakova 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Also Ukrainian, she beat local wildcard Olivia Rogowska 6-3, 7-5.

Seventh seed Jelena Ostapenko also progressed, but she too needed three sets to get past China's Duan Yingying.

On a hot Melbourne day, Croatia's sixth seed Marin Cilic advanced, with last year's Wimbledon finalist easily beating Joao Sousa.

US Open semi-finalist and 10th seed Pablo Carreno-Busta also went through after French veteran Gilles Simon retired injured when trailing 6-2, 3-0.

Alize Cornet has beaten No. 12-seeded Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-3 to reach the third round of the Australian Open. No. 42-ranked Cornet had taken only one set in five previous losses to Goerges, who was on a 15-match winning streak after her opening win at Melbourne Park. Goerges won the title at a warmup tournament in Auckland, New Zealand earlier this month and finished last year with titles at Moscow and Zhuhai.