Serena sails through to next round
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-19 07:06

She was happy just to grind out the win.

"Maybe I was just caught a little off guard, but the more aggressive I could be, I felt like the match was in my favour," said Davenport, who next plays Maria Kirilenko, the Russian 21st seed.

In the men's draw, Roddick, a semi-finalist here in two of the last three years, upped his tempo against the 60th-ranked Moodie to coast through 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.

But he played down his chances despite the absence of Andre Agassi, Marat Safin and Rafael Nadal.

"There's no such thing as an open draw. You have to win matches. You have to win sets," said the 23-year-old, who is the fastest server in men's tennis.

Argentina's Nalbandian encountered stiff resistance before beating Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in three hours in the night match on Rod Laver Arena.

Ljubicic of Croatia was equally comfortable in his 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 workout against Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber and joined eighth seed Gaudio of Argentina as winner.