Djokovic, Davydenko into 3rd round, Ivanovic out
January 22, 2010 00:00:00
Casey Dellacqua of Australia celebrates her victory over Karolina Sprem of Croatia in their singles second round match on day four of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne Thursday. Dallacqua won 7-6, 7-6.
MELBOURNE, JAN 21 (AP): Back on the court where he won his only Grand Slam title, Novak Djokovic overcame an early struggle against a journeyman Swiss player before advancing to the third round of the Australian Open.
The third-ranked Djok-ovic had nine double-faults and 52 unforced errors in his 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 win Thursday over Marco Chiudinelli, the Swiss player who was playing in his first Australian Open.
"I was well aware of his quality, and he played extremely well, especially in the first set and the start of the second," Djokovic said. "I was very lucky to get two sets to one up." "This court is most special because I won my only Grand Slam here," the 22-year-old Serb said of Rod Laver Arena, where he beat Federer in the semifinals en route to the 2008 title. "It has the nicest possible memories."
Djokovic will next play Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, who beat Michael Berrer of Germany 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
Sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who rarely gets onto the center court at this stage of a Grand Slam, had a 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 win over Ukraine qualifier Illya Marchenko in the low-key manner which has typified an 11-match winning streak.
The 28-year-old Russian doesn't have the profile of Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, and he's never made a Grand Slam final, but nobody has been playing better lately.
He dominated Marchenko on Show Court 2, which is No. 4 in the pecking order of courts at Melbourne Park, to extend a winning sequence that has included title runs at the World Tour Finals at the end of 2009 and Doha to start this year. Former No. 1-ranked Ana Ivanovic has the profile, but no recent form to go with it. The 22-year-old Serb extended her run of poor results in a second-round 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-4 loss to Gisela Dulko of Argentina.
Venus Williams, in her 10th Australian Open, advanced to the third round 6-2, 7-5 over Sybille Bammer of Austria. Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, but has only been to the final once in Australia, when she lost to her sister Serena in 2003. Serena Williams, who has won the season's first major every odd-numbered year since 2003, was next match on Hisense Arena against Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic.
Dulko was broken twice while serving for the match before finally breaking Ivanovic's serve - helped by two double-faults from the 2008 French Open champion - to clinch a place in the third round on her sixth match point.
Ivanovic, who lost the 2008 final here, has slipped to No. 21 in the rankings and didn't win a tournament in 2009. It was her first loss to Dulko in their three meetings.
US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark advanced 6-3, 6-1 over Julia Goerges of Germany and will next play No. 29 Shahar Peer of Israel, who beat Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 6-1, 6-4. Among the women advancing were No. 7 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, No. 9 Vera Zvonareva of Russia, No. 10 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 16 Li Na of China and No. 32 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain. On the men's side, 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis struggled late with cramping but held on to beat No. 17 David Ferrer of Spain 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-1.