Mauresmo defence continues apace

Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo and in-form Serb Jelena Jankovic stormed into the third round of the Australian Open in Melbourne after two impressive performances.

Playing her night match under the roof of Rod Laver Arena due to intermittent showers, Mauresmo quickly exerted her dominance on unseeded Russian Olga Poutchkova.

The second seed needed just 37 minutes to wrap up the first set 6-2 and, showing all the class that guided her to two grand slam victories in 2006, the powerful Frenchwoman ended proceedings 35 minutes later by the same scoreline in the second set.

Mauresmo, who believes her performance was a marked improvement on her first-round victory, will now meet Eva Birnerova after the Czech disposed of German Julia Schruff in three sets.

“It was much better than the first match, and [I am] really starting to find my rhythm a little bit more tonight and [my] serve was much better,” said Mauresmo.

“I felt I was also moving pretty well tonight and very serious in what I was doing. I felt pretty good out there tonight. It was good.”

Earlier in the day, highly-rated Jankovic signalled her title aspirations with yet another textbook performance.

Squaring off against Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual in milder Melbourne conditions, the in-form 11th seed took little more than an hour to wrap things up 6-2 6-2.

Also in stunning form was Russian fifth seed Nadia Petrova, who took less than an hour to close out her match with Argentine Gisela Dulko.

After making the quarter-finals last year, Petrova looks solid again this year and dispatched her opponent 6-1 6-2.

Serena Williams, fresh from her first-round win over Italian Mara Santangelo, was again in sound form as she marched to a 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 success over Luxembourg’s Anne Kremer.

Looking back on her second-round effort, Williams said she would be out to sharpen the mental side of her game ahead of her next match.

“I’m still working on some things. I need to stay more focused,” she said.

“I think I got off to a slow start in the first set and then I was making a tremendous amount of errors.

“In the second set, I was making more shots and I was playing just more of what I had planned.”

Meanwhile, 18th seed Marion Bartoli of France was totally outclassed by unseeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Azarenka grasped every chance that presented itself in the first set taking it 6-0, but was made to work harder in the second, grinding it out 7-5 to advance to the third round.

Third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova ended the modest title hopes of young Australian Monique Adamczak on the third morning.

Squaring off on Centre Court, Adamczak struggled immediately against the powerful Russian.

Former US Open champion Kuznetsova took the opening set 6-2 in just 27 minutes, following that up by winning the second 6-1.

Joining Petrova and Kuznetsova in round three were fellow Russians Maria Kirilenko and Elena Dementieva, both of whom registered hard-fought three-set wins.