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)