Nadal wants a hat trick at Barcelona

Rafael Nadal extended his winning streak on clay to 68 matches on Wednesday as he opened his bid for a third successive Barcelona Open title with a 6-1, 6-2 demolition of Belgian Kristof Vliegen. 

The top seed needed exactly one hour to advance to the third round, giving up just one more game than he did when beating Vliegen in Monte Carlo last week. Vliegen held serve in the opening game but that was as good as it got as a rampant Nadal reeled off six straight games.

Nadal broke serve again early in the second set and though the Belgian did manage to win two games the result was never in doubt. The Spaniard will meet the winner of the all-Swedish clash between 13th seed Robin Soderling and former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson.

Nadal is bidding to become only the second man, after Swede Mats Wilander, to win the Barcelona Open in three successive years.