MELBOURNE, Jan 16: Police defended their use of pepper spray on rowdy tennis fans and the sport’s big guns kept on blasting at Melbourne Park as the Australian Open got back on track on Wednesday.

As the fallout of Tuesday night’s crowd trouble settled, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova all blasted their way into the third round of the year’s opening Grand Slam, helping to refocus attention back on the tennis.

Andy Roddick and Justine Henin also triumphed, keeping the big names on track Down Under.

Following a night of television footage and in the face of front page headlines, Victoria Police vigorously defended their use of pepper spray on Tuesday, saying officers had feared for their own safety during the match between Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and Greek Konstantinos Economidis.

“Our members are not punching bags. We are not there to be the sort of people who want to be unruly or want to cause trouble to the rest of the event,” Superintendent John Cooke told reporters. “The use of the capsicum spray was in direct response to the threat that our members were under.”

Tournament officials backed the police.

“We said from the beginning that we would not accept the behaviour that is going to disturb and disrupt the others. We work in close partnership with the Victoria Police and in the actions they take,” tournament director Craig Tiley said.

Spanish second seed Nadal hammered his way past Frenchman Florent Serra 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 before reflecting sadly on the events of Tuesday.

The world No 2 next faces Gilles Simon of France.

Sixth seed Roddick sped through his night match with Michael Berrer, winning 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. He faces another German in Philipp Kohlschreiber next.

Women’s champion Serena snuffed out Chinese qualifier Yuan Meng 6-3, 6-1 with a forceful and fluid display. She did not dwell on the crowd trouble, it was time to move on. Next up is 26th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Sharapova ended the hopes of comeback mum Lindsay Davenport, smashing her fellow former world number one 6-1, 6-3. Next up for her is compatriot Elena Vesnina.

Women’s top seed Henin eased up a little towards the end of her 6-1, 7-5 victory over Russian Olga Poutchkova but was never in serious trouble. Her victory lined up a third-round clash with Italy’s Francesca Schiavone.

Results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Second round: 6-Andy Roddick (US) bt Michael Berrer (Germany) 6-2, 6-2, 6-4; 8-Richard Gasquet (France) bt Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 6-2, 6-1, 6-3; 29-Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) bt Evgeny Korolev (Russia) 6-4, 6-2, 0-1 – Korolev retired; 4-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) bt Nicolas Mahut (France) 6-4, 6-0, 6-3; 31-Igor Andreev (Russia) bt Kristof Vliegen (Belgium) 7-5, 7-5, 6-2; 28-Gilles Simon (France) bt Rainer Schuettler (Germany) 6-2, 6-2, 6-1; 14-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) bt Andreas Seppi (Italy) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4); 2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) bt Florent Serra (France) 6-0, 6-2, 6-2; Mardy Fish (US) bt 11-Tommy Robredo (Spain) 6-1, 6-2, 6-3; Marc Gicquel (France) bt 26-Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 2-1 – Wawrinka retired; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) bt Alejandro Falla (Colombia) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6); 20-Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) bt Dudi Sela (Israel) 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3, 6-1; 23-Paul Henri-Mathieu (France) bt Paul Capdeville (Chile) 6-7 (5-7), 6-0, 6-4, 6-4; 24-Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) bt Jesse Levine (US) 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (7-2); Stefan Koubek (Austria) bt Agustin Calleri (Argentina) 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5); Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) bt Sam Warburg (US) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

Women’s singles:

Second round: 5-Maria Sharapova (Russia) bt Lindsay Davenport (US) 6-1, 6-3; Hsieh Su-wei (Taiwan) bt 19-Sybille Bammer (Austria) 6-2, 6-0; 11-Elena Dementieva (Russia) bt Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) 5-7, 6-2, 6-3; 17-Shahar Peer (Israel) bt Jessica Moore (Australia) 6-0, 7-5; Aravane Rezai (France) bt 13-Tatiana Golovin (France) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; 12-Nicole Vaidisova (Czech Republic) bt Alicia Molik (Australia) 6-2, 6-3; Ai Sugiyama (Japan) bt Tatiana Perebiynis (Ukraine) 6-4, 6-4; 7-Serena Williams (US) bt Meng Yuan (China) 6-3, 6-1; 3-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) bt Edina Gallovits (Romania) 6-2, 7-5; 30-Virginie Razzano (France) bt Flavia Pennetta (Italy) 6-2, 5-7, 6-3; Elena Vesnina (Russia) bt Jill Craybas (US) 6-2, 6-4; 18-Amelie Mauresmo (France) bt Yaroslava Shvedova (Russia) 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); 26-Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) bt Sandra Kloesel (Germany) 6-1, 6-1; Casey Dellacqua (Australia) bt 15-Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) 4-6, 7-5, 8-6; 25-Francesca Schiavone (Italy) bt Angelique Kerber (Germany) 6-2, 6-3; 1-Justine Henin (Belgium) bt Olga Poutchkova (Russia) 6-1 7-5.—Reuters