Melbourne

American second seed Andy Roddick served his way into a third straight Australian Open tennis quarterfinal with a straight-sets victory over German Philipp Kohlschreiber on Monday. Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion, countered stiff resistance in the second set, which went to a tiebreaker before skating away in the final.

Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko fought through the pain barrier to reach his first grand slam quarterfinal with victory over Argentine 12th seed Guillermo Canas on Monday. The impressive 26th seed, who is yet to lose a set in the tournament, wasted no time in dispatching a disappointing Canas.

Four-times champion Andre Agassi steamed into the last 16 of the Australian Open tennis after taming the serve-volley power of American compatriot Taylor Dent in Melbourne on Friday. The 34-year-old eighth seed extinguished 29th-seeded Dent’s hopes with a 7-5, 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 win in one hour and 52 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

Svetlana Kuznetsova shrugged off the drug controversy raging around her to claim a place alongside other top seeds in the Australian Open third round on Wednesday. In the men’s draw, four-time former champion Andre Agassi and last year’s beaten finalist Marat Safin of Russia both swept through in straight sets.

A bitter drugs controversy embroiling Russian tennis star Svetlana Kuznetsova loomed over the Australian Open on Tuesday as the big guns eased through in early-round matches. Former US Open champion Andy Roddick and reigning French Open champion Anastasia Myskina led the way into the second round of the men’s and women’s draws.

The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi is to captain his country’s soccer team on a two-match tour of Australia next month, Australian officials said on Tuesday. New South Wales Soccer spokesperson Kyle Patterson said the 31-year-old midfielder’s friendship with Perugia and Australian national team goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac, a former Sydney United player, had helped bring about the tour.

Top-ranked Roger Federer ripped 54 winners past Fabrice Santoro on Monday, opening his Australian Open title defence with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 victory. In women’s first-round matches, Serena Williams had more trouble with her shoes than she did with Camille Pin, winning 6-1, 6-1 in the opening match on centre court.

Four-time winner Andre Agassi fought through the pain barrier at the Australian Open on Monday for a comfortable straight-sets win over German qualifier Dieter Kindlmann in the first round. The American tennis great, using anti-inflammatories for a sore hip, erased doubts over his fitness during a 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 win over Kindlmann.

Spaniard Carlos Moya became the highest-profile first-round casualty at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Monday after being bundled out by unheralded compatriot Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Fifth-seeded Moya never got going against his rising Davis Cup hitting partner Garcia-Lopez, ranked 106th in the world.

The West Indies wilted in the face of intense pressure from world champions Australia, collapsing 116 runs short of victory in their opening Tri-series one-day cricket international in Melbourne on Friday. After being dismissed off just 46,2 overs, the tourists mustered a paltry 185 runs in reply to Australia’s 301 for four.

A powerful explosion went off outside the Australian embassy in central Jakarta on Thursday, killing up to nine people and injuring as many as 100 injured in the blast, sources said. Officials at the nearby MMC Hospital in the Kuningan district, home to many foreign embassies, said that five Indonesians had been killed, including an embassy security guard and driver, and 99 others were brought to the hospital for treatment.