Rafa Nadal continued his march towards Beijing Olympic honours with a 6-1, 6-2, win over former world No.1, Lleyton Hewitt on Tuesday. 

Rafael, who will take over the top ranking on Monday was ruthless as he handed the Australian a comprehensive defeat to reach the third round. "I'm very happy about my performance," said Rafa after his victory. "I think I play one of my best matches in the last weeks on hard court."Rafa breezed through the opening set in just 45 minutes, breaking the Australian one in the fourth and sixth games as Hewitt was forced into the corner's by Rafa's powerful baseline shots.

Hewitt saved three set points before Rafa closed out the opening set and the second set followed the same pattern as the Australian struggled to find a way back into the game.

Hewitt did manage to break Rafa in the second game of the second set but that was as good as it got as the Spaniard closed out the match in 90 minutes.

Rafa meets Russia's Igor Andreev in the next round and added: 'Andreev hits the ball very hard, he has a big forehand and a good serve.

'He played well a couple of weeks ago in Toronto. I defeated him there and will try to do it again.'

Third seed Novak Djokovic joined Rafa in the third round with a 6-4 6-2 triumph over Rainer Schuettler of Germany, while David Nalbandian ended the hopes of defending champion Nicolas Massu with a 7-6 (7/0) 6-1 victory.