Williamses on track for semis clash MELBOURNE - Roger Federer and the Williams sisters stamped their authority on the Australian Open Thursday, but former world NO. 1 Ana Ivanovic was sent packing. The Swiss world NO. 1 took his place in the third round with a straight sets demolition of hapless Romanian Victor Hanescu. Watched by Britain's Prince William, he dominated in the 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 rout. Federer, bidding for his 16th Grand Slam title and fourth Australian Open, will now play Spanish 31st-seed Albert Montanes. “I'm happy with the way I played today. I think the opponent was very different to the one I played in the first round,” he said. “I got off to a good start and kind of never looked back. I moved well and played some amazing shots. It was great.” Defending champion Serena showed she was still the woman to beat, barely breaking a sweat as she crushed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-1. Much of the talk this year has been about the return of Belgian pair Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, but Serena made clear that anyone who wants to lift the trophy will have a fight on their hands. “Today I was better than my first round match, I was moving better, better energy. All round a lot better,” Serena said. “I feel like I could have played a lot better today.” Sister Venus, a seven-time Grand Slam champion but yet to win in Melbourne, was more workmanlike, grinding down Austrian Sybille Bammer 6-2, 7-5. Men's third seed Novak Djokovic overcame some first set wobbles to ease past Swiss Marco Chiudinelli 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 and set up a third round with Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin. More impressive was Russian sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko, who is shaping as a serious title contender after extending his win streak to 11 matches. The 28-year-old has yet to win a Grand Slam and has never been in a final but his 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 disposal of Ukrainian Illya Marchenko served notice that his time may have come. For Ivanovic, it looks like her time has past. The former finalist and world No. 1 put in an error-riddled performance to crash out to Argentinian Gisela Dulko 6-7 (6/8), 7-5, 6-4. She has slipped down the rankings to be outside the top 20 for the first time in five years, and Thursday's flop was the sixth time in her past seven tournaments where she had failed to go beyond the second round. “I just need to keep my head up and improve,” said Ivanovic, who lost the 2008 final to Maria Sharapova, who is also out of this year's tournament. Fellow Serb Djokovic was off his game in the opening set, conceding two service breaks and hitting a series of unforced errors. But he took control of the match to ease through. “There are some things that I obviously have to improve in order to play better,” Djokovic said. “But the opening rounds, especially at Australian Open, are tricky and where a lot of surprises happen.” Davydenko stayed on track for a quarterfinal with Federer. Having enjoyed a low profile throughout his career, he is getting more attention. “It's interesting,” he said. “We're not talking about tennis, we're talking about my life. This is my first experience like this in the press.” The attention is there because he has boasted an improved all-round game that he used to beat both Federer and Rafael Nadal in recent weeks. In other matches, Danish fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki breezed past Germany's Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-1 while ninth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonereva had an easy 6-0, 6-3 win over Czech Iveta Benesova. Former finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus advanced past David Ferrer 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 6-1 and will next face Australian Lleyton Hewitt, who had a 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-1 win over American Donald Young. The last Hewitt-Baghdatis match at Melbourne Park was a third-rounder that finished at 4:34 A.M. in 2008. No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who lost the 2008 final to Djokovic, had a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win over American Taylor Dent. No. 9 Fernando Verdasco, who played the longest match in the tournament's history before losing to fellow Spaniard Nadal in the semifinals last year, advanced to the third round with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win over Ivan Sergeyev of Ukraine. Colombia's Alejandro Falla had a 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 win over Marcel Granollers and will play another Spaniard in the next round - No. 26 Nicolas Almagro beat Germany's Benjamin Becker 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3.
