Serena, Svetlana Breeze Through by David Meddows Wednesday, 19 January, 2005 2003 Australian Open champion Serena Williams and US Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova were the most impressive women's winners on Day Three at Melbourne Park as a number of big names required three sets to advance and a host of seeds bowed out with second-round losses. Williams, the No.7 seed, barely had time to raise a sweat during her 6-3 6-0 victory over Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar, wrapping up the match in just 48 minutes, while No.5 seed Kuznetsova was the first of three leading Russian chances to advance to the third-round with a 6-2 6-0 demolition of Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli. Williams, one of the favourites to win another Australian Open title, was delighted to win another match in straight-sets. "Who wants to play a tough match? In all honesty, I'm sure everyone would rather go straight-sets than three sets," Williams said. "I'm feeling really good physically. I'm really proud of how I'm doing, how I'm feeling and how I'm really excited that I'm feeling so well. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the tournament." "I'm just here to play each match. I want to play five more. I really want to be there." Meanwhile, French No.2 seed Amelie Mauresmo and Russian No.4 seed Maria Sharapova both found themselves a set down before cruising through, with Mauresmo overpowering Russian Dinara Safina 2-6 6-1 6-0 while Sharapova was too good for American Lindsay Lee-Waters in winning 4-6 6-0 6-3. Sharapova admitted to being outplayed early and surprised by her 27-year-old opponent. "She played amazing in the first set, was moving side to side really well. It seemed like everything was going in, from my side I was making too many errors," the Russian said. Mauresmo will now face Ana Ivanovic, of Serbia and Montenegro, who breezed past Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-1 6-1, while Sharapova has booked a meeting with China's Na Li, who ousted Japanese No.28 seed Shinobu Asagoe 6-3 6-4. Fellow seeds Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia (No.17) and Argentina's Gisela Dulko (No.29) also went down in straight sets. In the night session on Rod Laver Arena, Russian No.11 seed Nadia Petrova also lost the first set in her match against 18-year-old Australian Sophie Ferguson, but breezed through the second and third sets with a 4-6 6-0 6-1 victory. But another Russian, No.9 seed Vera Zvonareva, became the highest-seeded woman to exit the Open so far, beaten 6-3 6-3 by compatriot Vera Douchevina, while Zuluaga succumbed to German Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Dulko lost a tight match to countrywoman Mariana Diaz-Oliva. In other matches, No.21 seed Amy Frazier had a 6-1 3-6 6-2 victory over Czech Denisa Chladkova, and Russian Evgenia Linetskaya took just 58 minutes to defeat Slovakian Martina Sucha 6-0 6-2. Bulgarian No.22 seed Magdalena Maleeva faced some tough opposition from Russian Alina Jidkova but progressed to the third round with a 6-4 7-5 win, while Italian No.15 seed Silvia Farina Elia also was made to work for her victory, needing a second-set tie-break to beat Poland's Marta Domachowska. Wildcard Sania Mirza became the first Indian woman to reach the third round of a Grand Slam tournament with a straight sets win over Hungarian Petra Mandula, the 6-2 6-1 victory setting up a clash with Serena Williams. --

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