Contenders through
Sharapova routs Benesova 6-1 6-2
Roger Federer and Caroline Wozniacki cruised into the third round of the US Open on Thursday while Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic and Robin Soderling showed why they are title contenders as well.
Swiss second seed Federer beat Germany’s 104th-ranked Andreas Beck 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 41 minutes at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Five-time US Open champion Federer will face 109th-ranked Paul-Henri Mathieu to decide a fourth-round berth on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts.
Danish women’s top seed Wozniacki blanked Taiwan’s Chang Kai-Chen 6-0, 6-0 in 47 minutes, her 11th match victory in a row after titles at Montreal and New Haven leading into the Open. She has dropped only two games in two matches.
“I go out there and I don’t give up. I don’t give any free points away and that is one of my strong points,” Wozniacki said.
Russian beauty Sharapova routed Iveta Benesova 6-1, 6-2, moving closer to a fourth-round showdown with Wozniacki.
The 2006 US Open winner struggled with injuries last year but is back on form now.
Serbian third seed Djokovic advanced 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 over Philipp Petzschner, saying, “I was shaky the whole match but I was able to hold on.”
Djokovic reached the 2007 US Open final and the Flushing Meadows semi-finals the past two years, each time losing to Federer, whom he could again face in the semi-finals.
“It’s important to save energy in the opening rounds,” Djokovic said.
“Overall I can be satisfied with how I played. I played well when I needed to and was a little bit lucky.”
Swedish fifth seed Soderling downed Taylor Dent 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. The French Open runner-up meets Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker next.
Russian sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko, a 2006 and 2007 US Open semi-final loser to Federer, was ousted 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 by 38th-ranked Richard Gasquet in the biggest upset of the day.
Gasquet, among a record 12 Frenchmen to reach the second round, lost only seven of 52 points on his first serve as Davydenko made his quickest US Open exit since 2005.
Davydenko joined a US Open seeded scrapheap that includes No. 7 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, US ninth seed Andy Roddick and Croatian 11th seed Marin Cilic, who lost to Japanese qualifier Kei Nishikori 5-7, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-1 in an exhausting five-hour duel.
Results
(Men) Robredo bt Benneteau 6-4 6-6 ret; Llodra bt Hanescu 7-6 6-4 6-2.
(Women) Clijsters bt Kvitova 6-3 6-0; Dementieva bt Hantuchova 7-5 6-2; Stosur bt Errani 6-2 6-3.