Top seeds fared well on the fourth day at the Australian Open in
Melbourne on Thursday.
World No. 1 Roger Federer hardly worked out a sweat before he
breezed past Fabrice Santoro 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 into the third round
while women's second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also pulled off her
second round victory against Tsvetana Pironkova from Bulgaria 7-6
(7-0), 6-2.
Swiss Federer took just 81 minutes to hit seven aces and 53
winners to clinch the lopsided second round match from the
35-year-old Frenchman.
"Today I just really got off to a good start. I think I played
him in a very smart way," said the 26-year-old.
The top seed will next face Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia who
stunned Spanish 25th seed Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6
(7-3) to progress.
"He made it through in that group. I thought Verdasco was going
to make it. But Janko has really improved a lot the last couple
years," Federer said. "It's going to be interesting to see how the
beginning of the match starts. It's going to be a dangerous match.
He beat some good players the last couple years."
Kuznetsova was off to a slow start and down at 5-3 in the first
set.
"I didn't start well and she's been playing good. I didn't play
my game," she said. The Russian then changed tactics which worked
well for her game.
"I tried to put more balls in play and tried to make rallies
long. So she's not very consistent," she explained.
Venus Williams experienced ups and downs before beating Camille
Pin of France 7-5, 6-4 to take on Indian 31st seed Sania Mirza,
winning 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 over Swiss Timea Bacsinszky.
The eighth seed struggled in her first set where nine breaks
happened for both the players and a total of 14 for the match.
But the six Grand Slam winner managed to make the crucial break
at 6-5 and carried on to win the second set despite her 44 unforced
errors, doubling that of her opponent.
"She plays a really feisty game, brings a lot of balls back and
a lot of ball low," said Williams about her rival. "She was
definitely on her best tennis today."
"It's just important for me to get to the next round. I feel
like I can always play better," she added.
Sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze defeated fellow Russian Alisa
Kleybanova 6-3, 6-4.
In night session, fourth seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia squandered
five match points before winning 6-0, 6-3 over Italian Tathiana
Garbin.
In the men's field, Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic did not
meet much challenge when he defeated Italian Simone Bolelli 6-1,
6-2, 6-2 while Argentine David Nalbandian, seeded 10th, toiled to
beat Peter Luczak of Australia 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 and 6-1.
Lleyton Hewitt kept home spectators' hope alive by overcoming
Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 in three
hours.
(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2008)