Clijsters through in Melbourne

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 13:01

Second seed Dinara Safina, third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and eighth seed Jelena Jankovic all went through to the third round.

Fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki, meanwhile, negotiated her first-round tie successfully, as did seventh seed Victoria Azarenka and ninth seed Vera Zvonareva. Clijsters prevailed in a tricky second-round match with veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn, winning 6-3 6-3.

Russia’s Safina beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-3 6-4 and will now meet Britain’s Elena Baltacha, who knocked out 30th seed Kateryna Bondarenko 6-2 7-5 earlier in the day.

Safina’s compatriot Kuznetsova beat fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2 6-2 and was satisfied with her display, but knows there is room for improvement.

“Overall I think I played aggressive,” said Kuznetsova, who now faces Angelique Kerber of Germany, a 6-2 6-3 victor over 26th seed Aravane Rezai of France.

Other second-round winners were 11th seed Marion Bartoli of France, 27th seed Alisa Kleybanova of Russia, Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer, Russia’s Maria Kirilenko, Italy’s Sara Errani and Zheng Jie of China.

In the first round, Wozniacki of Denmark beat Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak 6-4 6-2 and Belarus’ Azarenka defeated Stephanie Cohen-Aloro of France 6-2 6-0.

Russia’s Zvonareva progressed at the expense of Kristina Kucova of Slovakia, while Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden, Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele and Li Na of China, the 16th seed, also won through to the next round.

Daniela Hantuchova, the 22nd seed, beat Viktoriya Kutuzova 3-6 6-1 7-5 to join them in round two, while Yaroslava Shvedova, Tsvetana Pironkova, Tathiana Garbin, Julia Goerges, Iveta Benesova, Agnes Szavay and 29th seed Shahar Peer all progressed.

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