Australian Open Day III Round-up
Posted on January 17, 2007 - Filed Under Australian Open, Tennis | Leave a Comment
Day three at the Australian open saw much cooler temperatures and with better conditions returned some familiar score lines as most of the top seeds made an easy passage into the third round. Men’s top seed Roger Federer lead the way as he returned to his sublime best as he upstaged Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-2 6-3 6-2 in his second round match on Rod Laver Arena. Bright sunshine and a mild wind made it almost perfect whether to play and Fedex ran away with the match without breaking much sweat.
Also into the third round was Andy Roddick who now looks almost up to his very best as he prevailed over another Frenchman Marc Gicquel in straight sets 6-3 7-6 6-4. Roddick won the match with one break each in the first and third set whereas his opponent did manage to force a tie break in the second that Roddick won 7-4. Roddick will face Russian Marat Safin in the third round who saved a match point in the fourth set to beat his Israeli opponent Dudi Sela 6-3 5-7 6-4 7-6 6-0.
The other seeds who booked their places in the third round included 14th seed Novak Djokovic, 22nd seed Dominik Hrbaty, Mikhail Youzhny and Radek Stephnek seeded 25th and 20th respectively. Meanwhile Spain’s 24th seed Juan Carlos Ferraro lost out in four sets to Thai challenger Danai Udomchoke.
In the women’s singles the Russian brigade of Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva, and Nadia Petrova all made it to the third round with ease, apart from of course seventh seed Elena Dementieva who was stretched to three sets by German Martina Muller. Elena won the scratchy first set with a single break of serve but lost the second 6-3 to take the match into a decider. But Elena balked out the German in the final set to seal the match 7-5 6-3 6-0.
Former Champion Serena Williams put aside the fist set frustration to send Anne Kremer packing in the second and win the match 7-6 6-2. Also in to the third round was French teenager Tatiana Golovin while compatriot Marion Bartoli lost out to unseeded Victoria Azarenko. Wednesday also saw a few delayed first round matches where eighth seed Patty Schnyder won against American Madison Brengle. Dinara Safina also made it to the second round with an easy win over compatriot Ekaterina Bychkova.
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