Serena joins Djokovic in third round

MELBOURNE, Jan 22 (AFP): Serena Williams was slow to get going before finding her groove to bulldoze into the Australian Open third round Thursday, joining rampant fellow world number one Novak Djokovic and comeback queen Victoria Azarenka.

With the temperatures again sizzling around 33 Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) at Melbourne Park, the American 18-time Grand Slam champion took time to adjust to the sauna-like conditions against Russian veteran Vera Zvonareva. She had to save two set points before exploding into action in the second set to easily win 7-5, 6-0 and keep alive her dream of a sixth Australian title.

Djokovic, gunning to be crowned champion a fifth time, was on fire in his showdown against Andrey Kuznetsov, crushing the hapless Russian 6-0, 6-1, 6-4.