Tennis:Andy Roddick laughed off a pair of embarrassing air-shots as he navigated his way into the third round of the Australian Open.

The American missed two simple ground strokes, but still had plenty in reserve as he notched a regulation 6-2 6-2 6-4 win over Germany's Michael Berrer.

In a contest not likely to provide many moments for the highlight reel, the sixth seed kept his unforced error count to 12 while Berrer committed 45 as he continually searched for winners.

Roddick, a semi-finalist in Melbourne three times, looked set to clock off early as his power and pace secured the first two sets in 63 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena.

But an error-ridden third set stretched to almost an hour after Roddick fell 3-0 behind.

His frustrations boiled over and he threw his racket hard into the court after he failed to connect with a straightforward forehand from the baseline.

He regrouped to level the set at 3-3 before breaking the 27-year-old Berrer's serve to open a 5-3 buffer.

A brave Berrer then defended a trio of match points on his serve, before Roddick served out the match to book a meeting with Philipp Kohlschreiber in the next round.

A typically light-hearted Roddick was able to smile about his pair of fresh-air forehands in the post-match press conference.

"You know what sucks is when you have to talk about two whiffs as opposed to one," he said. "I just didn't want the first one to be lonely or something.

"It's about surviving," he added. "It's giving yourself a chance to play another day. I've gotten through enough first weeks now where I know how to manage my way through it a little bit.

"You know, the oldest saying in tennis, and the most boring to you guys is, 'You can't win it but you can lose it in the first week'. But there's not going to be a point in time where that saying isn't true."

Elsewhere on the third day, Rafael Nadal put his sluggish first-round performance against Viktor Troicki behind him as he hammered France's Florent Serra 6-0 6-2 6-2 in just 94 minutes.

Nadal has never advanced beyond the quarter-finals in Melbourne. "I have come back here prepared physically," the 21-year- old, who has won three French Open titles, said. "I'm happy about the match and my improvement after the first round."

Russia's Nikolay Davydenko is also through to the third round after posting a 6-4 6-0 6-3 win over Frenchman Nicholas Mahut in less than two hours.

Eighth-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet also made his way into the last 32 with a win over Feliciano Lopez of Spain in straight sets.

Gasquet will be joined in the next round by fellow seeds Mikhail Youzhny, Jarkko Niemenen, Ivo Karlovic and Paul-Henri Mathieu, who all posted second-round wins.

Unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who knocked out British hope Andy Murray on day one, also advanced with a straight-sets win over Sam Warburg.

There was an early exit for 11th-seeded Tommy Robredo, however, who was trounced by Mardy Fish in straight sets.

Stanislas Wawrinka, the 26th seed from Switzerland, is also out after retiring when trailing two sets to one against France's Marc Gicquel.