Normal service resumes after tennis ruckus

By Ossian Shine

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - 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 behavior 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.

"I think this is only a game and everybody has to know that, no?" the world number two mused before starting preparations for his next match against 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.

STORMING SERENA

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.

"Everyone I'm playing is fighting to win as well as I am, so I'm really serious and focused on every match," the American smiled. 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.