SYDNEY, Australia — Serena Williams and Dinara Safina made short work of second-round opponents Tuesday to move into the quarterfinals at the Sydney International.
Williams, who was stretched to three sets and saved four match points in her opening match against Samantha Stosur of Australia, beat Sara Errani 6-1, 6-2 in 50 minutes Tuesday.
Her win at Ken Rosewall Arena, the center court at the Olympic Park Tennis Centre, came moments after Safina finished off a 6-3, 6-0 win over Vera Dushevina in just over an hour on Court 1.
Three other seeded players in the women’s draw at the joint ATP-WTA tournament also advanced Tuesday.
No. 3 Elena Dementieva beat Jarmila Gajdosova 6-2, 6-4, No. 6 Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 7-5 and No. 8 Caroline Wozniacki beat Melanie South 6-2, 6-0.
In another match, Ai Sugiyama beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.
In early first-round men’s play, Paul-Henri Mathieu beat Andreas Seppi 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
On Monday, second-seeded Dinara Safina continued her tuneup for the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Sorana Cirstea of Romania.
Playing her first WTA tournament of the year after teaming with her brother, Marat Safin, to represent Russia at the Hopman Cup last week, Safina took advantage of five double faults by Cirstea to advance to the second round after the 58-minute match at Ken Rosewall Arena.
Safina said Cirstea had pushed her to play a more aggressive game.
“She goes for the shots, so I had to avoid this,” Safina said. “I had to be much more aggressive, as she is. I think I did this pretty well today.”
Safina said she appreciated the pre-Grand Slam practice she was getting at the Hopman Cup and Sydney. The Australian Open begins next Monday in Melbourne.
“You have to try the things you’ve been working on” in the offseason, she said. “Now I’ve played many matches and I still feel that I can improve. I feel there is room to be more aggressive and just try to play many matches and get 100 percent in the Australian Open.”
Safina has nine WTA Tour victories, but the closest she’s come to a Grand Slam title was losing in the final to Ana Ivanovic at the French Open last year. She also won the singles silver medal at last summer’s Beijing Olympics.
In other matches Monday, Alize Cornet of France beat No. 7 Nadia Petrova of Russia 6-2, 6-4 and eighth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark defeated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2.
Cornet and Cibulkova also played at the Hopman Cup, and Cibulkova won the title with compatriot Dominik Hbraty when Slovakia beat Safin and Safina in the final.
Some players complained of hot and windy conditions on the courts Monday, and fans sought out shade where they could.
There were two illness-related pullouts and one injury retirement Monday. Fourth-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia withdrew with a stomach ailment and Victoria Azarenka, who won the Brisbane International title on Saturday, pulled out of her first-round match with a virus.
Melanie Smith of Britain advanced to the second round when Marion Bartoli of France retired with a left calf muscle strain at 1-1 in the first set.
In first-round men’s play at the joint ATP-WTA event, fifth-seeded Igor Andreev of Russia beat Canada’s Frank Dancevic 7-6 (2), 6-3 and seventh-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain, a former Australian Open quarterfinalist, defeated Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-4.
Michael Llodra of France defeated Denis Gremelmayr of Germany 6-0, 6-2 and Mario Ancic of Croatia beat Belgium’s Xavier Malisse 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3. Jarkko Nieminen of Finland beat Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-2, 7-6 (9) and Simone Bolelli of Italy defeated countryman Potito Starace 7-6 (1), 6-4.
The top four seeds — No. 1 Novak Djokovic, Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon and Argentina’s David Nalbandian — were given first-round byes. Defending Australian Open champion Djokovic plays his first match Wednesday.
HOBART, Australia — The last of the seeded players was knocked out of the Hobart International on Tuesday when Slovokia’s Magdalena Rybarikova beat top-seeded Flavia Pennetta 7-5, 6-3.
Pennetta of Italy, No. 13 in the world rankings, struggled with her serve and was broken five times in the second-round match.
She followed fourth-seeded Zheng Ji of China and seventh-seeded Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine out in the second round on a hot day when temperatures reached 99 degrees.
Argentina’s Gisela Dulko beat Zheng 6-3, 6-3 and Czech player Petra Kvitova had a 6-2, 6-1 win over Bondarenko.
The other seeded players gone before the end of the second round were Patty Schnyder (2) of Switzerland, Ana Chakvetadze (3) of Russia, Hungary’s Agnes Szavay (5), Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak (6) and Tamarine Tanasugarn (8) of Thailand.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Sam Querrey and Robby Ginepri of the United States each beat New Zealand wild card opponents Monday to reach the second round of the Heineken Open.
The sixth-seeded Querrey served six aces but mixed his all-court game to beat 463rd-ranked Dan King-Turner 6-4, 7-5. The unseeded Ginepri beat 413th-ranked Rubin Statham 6-2, 6-3.
Querrey’s powerful serve was the key to his win over King-Turner, putting the New Zealander on the defensive.
“I’m happy with my serve. That’s my weapon and if it’s not working I tend to struggle,” Querrey said.
Querrey, who won his first ATP title and made his Davis Cup debut in 2008, took advantage of a single service break in the seventh game to win the first set in 34 minutes.
He broke again in the first game of the second set but gave up serve in the 10th game to even the match at 5-5. He immediately broke King-Turner again, then served out the match on his first match point, finishing with a crashing crosscourt volley.
“He definitely played well,” Querrey said. “I was here last year and saw him then so I knew he was a dangerous player.”
Querrey said he wasn’t fazed by the strong crowd support for the New Zealander.
“When I play in the States I have the crowd behind me. Dan has one tournament a year so he deserves it,” he said.
Querrey said he was happy with his game as he worked toward next week’s Australian Open, where he reached the third round last year.
“I’ve trained really hard in November and December and hopefully that will pay off during the year,” he said.
Ginepri gained an early service break in the opening set against Statham and easily closed out the set. He exchanged service breaks with the New Zealander in the fifth and sixth games of the second set, then lifted his game to sweep the next three games.
Earlier Monday, American John Isner, who won the USTA wild-card tournament to gain entry to the Australian Open, beat Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3) in his final qualifying match to earn a place in the main draw.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Former world No. 1 Marat Safin withdrew Monday from an eight-man exhibition tournament at Kooyong, the former home of the Australian Open, and was replaced by Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.
Kooyong Classic officials said Safin’s manager informed them that the Russian star, who won the Australian Open in 2005, had a shoulder injury and could not take part in the tournament that begins Wednesday.
Safin showed up at last week’s Hopman Cup — where he and his sister, Dinara Safina, lost in the final to Slovakia — with facial cuts and bruises. He said the injuries resulted from a fight he was involved in before he left Moscow for Perth, although his play at the Hopman Cup appeared to be unaffected.
The Kooyong tournament includes Roger Federer, Stanislaw Wawrinka, Fernando Gonzalez, Fernando Verdasco, Marin Cilic, Carlos Moya and Marcos Baghdatis.
Each player is guaranteed three matches in the tournament which ends Saturday. The Australian Open begins next Monday.
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