Serena Williams confounded her critics with a dominating display in the Australian Open on Wednesday but world number one Lindsay Davenport wobbled before booking her third round berth.
Williams, the defending champion, has looked out of shape and out of form in the lead up to the tournament but put in a determined performance against Camille Pin of France, winning 6-3, 6-1 in just 49 minutes.
Many had expected she would struggle in the Melbourne Park heat after enduring jibes about her fitness heading into the first Grand Slam of the year, but she ominously marched on.
”It’s never as easy as it looks, I’m just happy to be advancing through the rounds here,” said the two-time Australian Open champion, seeded 13, who will next play 17th seed Daniela Hantuchova of the Slovak Republic.
The winner of that match is scheduled to meet fourth seed Maria Sharapova, who plays American qualifier Ashley Harkleroad in a night match on Wednesday.
Top seed Davenport, on the same side of the draw and who could meet Williams in the semifinals, initially struggled to assert control in her match against unseeded Croatian Karolina Sprem, who reached the fourth round last year.
She was taken to a first set tie-break but came back to eventually win 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 and keep alive her hopes of repeating her 2000 tournament win here.
She was happy just to grind out the win.
”Maybe I was just caught a little off guard, but the more aggressive I could be, I felt like the match was in my favour,” she said.
”Some days when you don’t feel like every shot’s going in and you still come through and win against a girl who’s playing well then it’s a great win.”
Davenport made an uncharacteristic 18 unforced errors in the first set but her serve gave her the edge over Sprem as she fired down four aces while her opponent committed six double faults.
Among the men, seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia took care of Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-5, 6-2, 6-1, joining eighth seed Gaston Gaudio of Argentina in the next round.
Gaudio had a comfortable 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 victory over another German, Lars Burgsmuller, and will next play Fabrice Santoro of France, who beat Romania’s Andrei Pavel just as easily, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.
Ljubicic will now clash with Gilles Muller of Luxembourg or Spanish 31st seed Feliciano Lopez on Friday.
”I feel really that people really expect big things for me and I hope I’m not going to disappoint them,” said the Croat.
”In the past I was winning some important matches but I was never really ready physically to win a lot of matches in a row. Now, I think last year I proved that I am.”
Number 11 seed David Ferrer is also safely through, overcoming the challenge of Italy’s Daniele Bracciali.
Elsewhere, Justine Henin-Hardenne, seeded eight, continued her promising form, beating Hana Sromova of the Czech Republic, who twisted an ankle in the second set, 7-6 (7/2), 6-1.
The Belgian, who won here in 2004, has warned her rivals she is playing the best tennis of her career and has been in top form this year.
Sixth seed Nadia Petrova of Russia is also into the next round.
Men’s second seed Andy Roddick clashes with South African Wesley Moodie later in the day while fourth seed David Nalbandian will pit himself against Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.
Nalbandian’s form is suspect after he struggled in an opening five-set match against Thai qualifier Danai Udomchoke. – Sapa-AFP