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Sharapova Stops Davenport At Australian Open

POSTED: 11:39 am EST January 16, 2008
UPDATED: 1:55 pm EST January 16, 2008

Belgian stalwart Justine Henin won her 30th straight match on Wednesday, posting a comfortable straight-set victory to reach the third round at the Australian Open, the season's first major. Henin's fellow stars, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams, also notched second-round wins on Day 3.

The top-seeded/world No. 1 Henin, fresh off her title last week in Sydney, doused Russia's Olga Poutchkova 6-1, 7-5 in 1 hour, 23 minutes to reach the third round.

The seven-time Grand Slam event champion Henin will face Italian Francesca Schiavone in the third round.

In the biggest match of the day, a fifth-seeded Sharapova swatted 26 winners on her way to drilling fellow former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport 6-1, 6-3. Sharapova jumped out to a 5-0 first-set lead and never looked back.

Davenport was a bit more competitive in the second set, as the stanza was knotted at 3-3 before the Russian claimed the final few games and converted on a second match point when the American netted one final forehand.

"From the day I found out, I started working for this game," Sharapova said. "I approached it like it's a final."

The powerful Russian is now 5-1 lifetime against Davenport, who became a mom for the first time in June of last year. The two-time major titlist Sharapova was last year's Melbourne runner-up to Williams.

Up next for Sharapova will be fellow Russian Elena Vesnina.

The 31-year-old Davenport is a three-time Grand Slam singles champion, but hasn't captured a major title since the 2000 Aussie Open. She had won 19 of her last 20 singles matches before running into Sharapova on Wednesday.

"She was head and shoulders better than I was," Davenport said. "I felt like I never really hit the ball that well, and I'm in trouble when I'm not hitting the ball well."

Third-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic fought through a second set that pushed past one hour in a 6-2, 7-5 win over Romanian Edina Gallovits, while the seventh-seeded and defending champion Williams downed Chinese Meng Yuan 6-3, 6-1.

The three-time Aussie Open champ Williams, now 25-1 at this event since 2003, played with purpose and continued her stellar play at the major in Melbourne. The powerful American's third-round opponent will be rising Belarusian star Victoria Azarenka.

Eleventh-seeded two-time Grand Slam runner-up Elena Dementieva of Russia overcame Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues 5-7, 6-2, 6-3, while 12th-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova vaulted past disappointing Aussie Alicia Molik 6-2, 6-3.

Seventeenth-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer handled Aussie Jessica Moore 6-0, 7-5; former Aussie Open champion and former No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo, the 18th seed, slipped past Russia's Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); a No. 25 Schiavone beat Germany's Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-3; a 26th-seeded Azarenka swept past German Sandra Kloesel 6-1, 6-1; and 30th-seeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano escaped Italy's Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. Razzano should have her hands full with Jankovic in the round of 32.

Upsets came when Aravane Rezai took out her 13th-seeded fellow Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Aussie crowd favorite Casey Dellacqua downed 15th-seeded Swiss lefty Patty Schnyder 4-6, 7-5, 8-6; and Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh surprised 19th-seeded Austrian southpaw Sybille Bammer 6-2, 6-0. Dellacqua is rewarded with a third-rounder against the 2006 Aussie Open champion Mauresmo.

Other second-round winners were Vesnina, who downed veteran American Jill Craybas 6-2, 6-4, and Japan's Ai Sugiyama, who got past Ukrainian Tatiana Perebiynis 6-4, 6-4.

The second round will resume here on Thursday, including matches for U.S. Open runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova, French Open finalist Ana Ivanovic and Wimbledon champion Venus Williams.

The second-seeded Kuznetsova will face Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, while the fourth-seeded Ivanovic will meet Italian Tathiana Garbin and the eighth-seeded Venus will encounter France's Camille Pin.

Sixth-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze and ninth-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova will also see action here on Day 4.

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