MELBOURNE - RAFAEL Nadal says he is far from feeling frustrated at being world number two for the last three years and is not obsessed with seizing the top ranking off Roger Federer.

The mercurial Spaniard pounded his way into the third round of the Australian Open with a ruthless straight sets demolition of Frenchman Florent Serra on Wednesday.

The triple French Open champion crushed the hapless 88th-ranked Serra, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 in just an hour and 34 minutes.

Inevitably, questions at his post-match press conference centred on his pursuit of Federer, who dominates men's tennis and is poised for his 13th Grand Slam crown in Melbourne.

Nadal appeared weary of talking about his rival and admonished a reporter's suggestion that it was frustrating to always have the incomparable Swiss ahead of him on the rankings.

"Why frustrating? 5,700 points or 800 points. Nothing frustrating. I'm very happy to be number two, and I will be love to be No. 2 for next hundred years!" he said.

"It's a very good position, especially with my points position. Anyway, if I have 2,500 points and I am number two, that's very good to be number two, no? But I have more than 5,000 (points), so I'm very happy to be there. I'm very happy about my last three seasons, and I will try my best to get to the top position this season, too".

Nadal has Federer's measure on the red clay of Roland Garros, winning the last three French Opens and holding a 21-0 unbeaten record in the only Grand Slam played on clay.

There was almost an air of resignation in Nadal's voice when he was asked about Federer's sublime first-round performance when he put away Argentina's Diego Hartfield in double-quick time.

"I saw the last four games of the (Federer) match. The result says a lot. I saw him with confidence and playing very well. Not much different than always", he said.

Nadal looked in blinding form against the overwhelmed Serra, bombarding him with his rapier forehand and cashing in on the Frenchman's flood of 26 unforced errors.

Nadal's consummate victory followed his sterner straight sets opener on Monday against Serbian qualifier Viktor Troicki, who made him work much harder than Serra.

"The important thing is I play much better. I played at a very high level in the first set", Nadal said.

"I'm happy about my improvement after first round, and especially I improved a lot with my serve and with the forehand".

Serra didn't win his first game until the ninth of the match after Nadal had strung together four service breaks.

The outgunned Frenchman had a few minor successes of his own, breaking Nadal once in the second set and another in the third set, but it was not enough to exert any pressure on the second seed.

Nadal is playing in his fourth Australian Open and has progressed a round further in each of his previous appearances in Melbourne, last year beaten by eventual finalist Fernando Gonzalez in the quarter-finals.

Nadal won six titles in 2007, including the French Open, and forced Federer into a five-set thriller in the Wimbledon final. -- AFP