Mysinka progresses as injury floors Raymond

Russia’s Anastasia Myskina today advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open without hitting a ball.

Myskina’s third-round opponent, American Lisa Raymond, was forced to withdraw from the tournament after an MRI scan confirmed she had torn an abdominal muscle in the first game of a mixed doubles match on Friday.

Raymond, who will be out for four to six weeks, had breezed through the first two rounds for the loss of just two games, and was expected to give French Open champion Myskina a real test.

“I’m extremely disappointed because I couldn’t have asked to play better in my first two matches,” said Raymond, the 25th seed. “I was really looking forward to playing Myskina. I’m going to stick around in Melbourne for a couple of days as I’ve been advised not to fly just yet.”

Myskina, the third seed, will play Nathalie Dechy in the last 16 after the French number 19 seed beat 14th seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-3 6-3.

Top seed Lindsay Davenport joined Myskina in the fourth round with a straightforward victory over Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic.

Davenport, who surprisingly lost a set to another Czech player, Michaela Pastikova, in the second round, eased to a 6-2 6-4 victory over her 15-year-old opponent.

“I think she hits some great shots,” Davenport said. “She made some errors that probably some inexperience played a role in. But she’s so young and obviously has a big game and has many, many years to improve on that.

“I was fully expecting a tough opponent and was able to play well enough to get through it. She obviously has big groundstrokes and a big serve, and she’s only 15 so she has a very big future.”

Davenport will play 13th seed Karolina Sprem in the last 16, the Croatian beating Russia’s Elena Likhovtseva 6-4 6-3.

For the second day in succession there had yet to be a three-set match in the women’s singles as the top seeds enjoyed comfortable victories.

Eighth seed Venus Williams was 2-0 down in the first set to Anna Smashnova but dropped just one more game in the match, while local favourite Alicia Molik also won in straight sets.

Australian Molik, the 10th seed, beat Russian Tatiana Panova 6-3 6-2 and now faces Williams in the last 16.

The only match of the third round to go the distance was worth waiting for as Elena Dementieva defeated Daniela Hantuchova 7-5 5-7 6-4.

The sixth seed eventually prevailed after two hours and 43 minutes and will face 12th seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in the fourth round.

Schnyder defeated unseeded American Abigail Spears 7-6 6-3 earlier in the day.