Australian Open tennis
Serena Williams advances to third round MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Serena Williams was back in “Serena slam” form Thursday.
After nearly losing her opener, Williams advanced to the Australian Open’s third round with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Belgian Els Callens, who gave the world’s No. 1 player a tough challenge at Wimbledon last year.
Williams now is five matches away from becoming the reigning champion of all four major tournaments.
Last year, an injury on the eve of the Australian Open ruined her chance for a true Grand Slam – winning all four majors in the same calendar year. She went on to beat sister Venus Williams in the finals at the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.
A rash of errors left Williams on the verge of defeat before she rallied to edge France’s Emilie Loit on Tuesday. This time, she said she was inspired by Venus’ 6-3, 6-0 victory over Ansley Cargill the previous night.
“She played a great match,” Serena said of her sister. “I was motivated after watching her, thinking, “OK, she wants to be No. 1 again.”‘
Serena faced two break points in her first service game, but she then broke Callens at 15 in the fifth game by hitting winners or forcing errors. Callens, ranked 66th, managed to hold serve twice more in the first set but had no answer for Williams’ power.
Williams needed two tiebreakers to beat her in the third round at Wimbledon. In the opener here, she acknowledged being “a little too lackadaisical” against Loit.
On the men’s side, Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian, seeded 10th, beat Australian qualifier Jaymon Crabb 6-1, 7-6 (10), 6-3, and No. 18 Younes El Aynaoui defeated Uzbek qualifier Vadim Kutsenko 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.
No. 23 James Blake beat Argentina’s Jose Acasuso 6-1, 6-4, 6-4; No. 31 Rainer Schuettler ousted 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek 6-3, 7-5, 6-4; Spain’s Feliciano Lopez defeated American Robby Ginepri 6-2, 6-4, 6-2; and Swedish qualifier Andreas Vinciguerra advanced when Austrian Julian Knowle retired with a torn right calf. Vinciguerra was leading 6-2, 0-1.
In other women’s matches, No. 16 Nathalie Dechy beat Czech player Daja Bedanova 6-3, 6-3, No. 20 Elena Bovina defeated Italy’s Rita Grande 6-1, 6-2, and No. 25 Meghann Shaughnessy beat Slovakia’s Ludmila Cervanova 6-1, 6-1.
While Venus was impressive on Wednesday, Andre Agassi was more so. He lost the first seven points of his second-round match against South Korean Lee Hyung-taik, then the three-time champion won 18 straight games for a 6-1, 6-0, 6-0 victory in just 80 minutes.
Lindsay Davenport was lucky to advance in three sets, but 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moya lost. The fifth-seeded Spaniard was ousted by 83rd-ranked Mardy Fish 3-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.
And tennis isn’t even Fish’s favorite sport. It’s golf.
After a rocky match in the first round, Venus enjoyed herself in her victory over Cargill, an American ranked 118th.
“I was playing a lot of good points in a row. I also was able to start being aggressive because I was more consistent,” said Venus, who had 28 errors but 39 winners. She’s hoping to add to her collection of four Grand Slam tournament trophies.
Agassi also knows a bit about success at major tournaments: He’s second to Pete Sampras among active players with seven major titles. But he lost the first game and was down 40-0 in the second against Lee, who last week in Sydney became the first South Korean to win an ATP Tour title.
“When you play a guy of Lee’s quality, playing as well as he’s been playing, to go out there and have a scoreline like that doesn’t happen too often,” said Agassi, who won the Australian Open in 1995, 2000 and 2001. “Needless to say, I felt great about everything.”
Davenport, who has won three majors including the 2000 Australian, had to rally from a 3-1 deficit in the final set for a 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-5 victory over 57th-ranked Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan. Davenport was helped by a series of errors by her opponent in the final game.
She missed most of last year after knee surgery in January but still reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open.
Moya was one of seven seeded men to lose Wednesday, although he’s the only member of the top 10 to drop out so far.
No. 11 Paradorn Srichaphan, a Thai who rose 110 places in the rankings last year and was given the honor of playing the opening match on center court, lost 3-6, 6-1, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 to Australian Mark Philippoussis, the 1998 U.S. Open runner-up.
No. 14 Guillermo Canas lost 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Argentina’s Guillermo Coria; No. 16 Sjeng Schalken lost 6-3, 1-6, 6-7 (10), 6-4, 6-4 to Croatia’s Mario Ancic; and No. 22 Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the 1999 Australian champion and 2000 runner-up, lost 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1 to Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen.
Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero reached the third round by beating Jean-Rene Lisnard 6-0, 6-4, 6-2.
Six seeded women lost, including No. 13 Silvia Farina Elia and No. 15 Alexandra Stevenson. Nicole Pratt beat Farina Elia 6-3, 6-2, and Denisa Chladkova beat Stevenson 6-2, 6-2.
Of the original 32 seeded players on each side, 21 men and 22 women remained halfway through the second round.