Maria Sharapova celebrates after beating Lindsay Davenport in Melbourne on Wednesday. Sharapova won 6-1, 6-3. (AP)

Melbourne: Police defended their use of pepper spray on rowdy fans and the sport’s big guns kept on blasting at the Australian Open 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 event, helping to put attention back on the tennis. Andy Roddick and Justine Henin also triumphed.

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.

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 No. 2 mused. He next faces Gilles Simon of France. Simon, the 28 seed, saw off Rainer Schuettler of Germany 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.

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.

The 29th-seeded German was leading to sets to love when his Russian opponent, Evgeny Korolev, retired with the score reading 6-4, 6-2, 0-1.

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 said with a smile. Next up is 26th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who beat Sandra Kloesel of Germany 6-1, 6-1.

Sharapova ended the hopes of comeback mum Lindsay Davenport, smashing her fellow former world No. 1 6-1, 6-3. Next up for her is compatriot Elena Vesnina, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over American Jill Craybas.

Women’s top seed Henin eased up a little towards the end of her 6-1, 7-5 victory over Russian Olga Poutchkova but was never in serious trouble. Her victory lined up a third-round clash with Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, who got past German Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-3.