Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal had easy passages into round three of the Australian Open on Wednesday, while there was late drama on Margaret Court Arena in the match between John Isner and David Nalbandian.
Federer's second round match in Hisense Arena, which was to be his first way from Rod Laver Arena in eight years, proved a non-event as his opponent Andreas Beck withdrew with lower back soreness.
Nadal had to actually win his match against veteran Tommy Haas, but did it with comfort 6-4 6-3 6-4 in two and half hours.
Nadal, the second seed, began brilliantly to lead 4-0 and while Haas broke back once, the 2009 champion served out the set.
It was easy pickings for Nadal in the second set, breaking the German twice and while he briefly slipped up at the start of the third, he regained the momentum with breaks in the six and 10th game to win the match.
Nadal will play Slovakian Lucas Lacko in the third round after he overpowered American Donald Young 6-3 6-1 3-6 6-3.
But the drama was on Margaret Court Arena just as the sun was setting where Isner and Nalbandian battled out a controversial five-set marathon that lasted four hours and 41 minutes.
Isner, no stranger to lengthy matches after his clash against Nicholas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010 that went for over 11 hours, trailed Nalbandian by two-sets-to-one, but eventually fought back to defeat the Argentine 4-6 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-5) 10-8.
Nalbandian had a break point at 8-8 in the fifth set when Isner's first serve was called out by the linesman, only to be overruled by French umpire Kader Nouni.
Nouni, who predominantly works on the WTA Tour, didn't allow Nalbandian to use the Hawk-Eye technology to check the call as he deemed he had taken too long to decide to challenge.
Replays showed the linesman's call was correct and Nalbandian failed to recover as Isner took advantage of the situation to hold serve then break in the ensuing game to seal the match.
Meanwhile, American Mardy Fish failed to make it past the second round for the third consecutive year in Melbourne, with Colombian Alejandro Falla playing some outstanding tennis on his way to a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 7-6 (8-6) win in a match which lasted exactly three hours.
Fish could only have himself to blame for the defeat, making 58 unforced errors, including 37 on the forehand with which he really struggled to control. Falla rifled off 30 winners, including 11 in a brilliant third set, to make it through to the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the third time.
He now plays Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, who was handed an easy passage when Spaniard Pere Riba retired when trailing 6-0 4-0.
No.7 seed Tomas Berdych eased into the last 32 with a 6-1 6-0 7-6 (7-4) win over veteran Belgian Olivier Rochus.
Berdych was in scintillating form with 47 winners including 21 aces in a match which lasted six minutes short of two hours. He broke Rochus twice in the first set and three times in a second set where the world No.54 won just 11 points.
The third set was much tighter but the Czech never looked concerned, wrapping up a third round match-up with No.30 seed Kevin Anderson, who overcame Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky in four tight sets 3-6 6-1 7-6 (7-3)