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Top of the pile Serena, Hewitt keep on winning; Injured Safin quitsPosted: Friday January 17, 2003 9:06 PMUpdated: Saturday January 18, 2003 6:50 AM
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Serena Williams is looking over her shoulder as she closes in on the "Serena Slam." The top-ranked Williams won her 24th consecutive Grand Slam match Saturday, overpowering Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open. "My priorities still remain to try and stay No. 1," said Williams, who has beaten sister Venus in the last Grand Slam finals. "It's going to be hard because there are lots of people after me -- namely Venus, who really wants to be No. 1 again." Serena also has an eye on fourth-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium, a possible semifinal opponent. The 19-year-old Clijsters, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Belarus' Tatiana Poutchek, has lost only six games in six sets and is averaging just 50 minutes in her three matches. She has won 22 of her latest 23 matches, including consecutive wins over the Williams sisters in the WTA Championships in November. Men's No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt doesn't seem concerned with who is behind him, only who his next victim will be. The Wimbledon champion reached the fourth round, equaling his best performance at the Australian Open, with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 win over Radek Stepanek. Stepanek, ranked No. 68, had four break points before Hewitt dropped serve in an eight-minute opening game. Coming off an upset win over former No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten in the second round, the Czech held serve to lead 2-0 and was skipping in celebration, which only worked to motivate Hewitt. While struggling with his own serve, Hewitt attacked Stepanek's and broke him twice in each of the first two sets and three times in the third, serving it out in 1 hour, 30 minutes when Stepanek dumped a backhand return into the net. "I started a bit rusty tonight and was able to get better and better as it went on," he said. "He probably played nearly as well as he could in that first game and served extremely well in the next ... from there, I felt pretty much in control." Despite losing just seven games in his last six sets, Hewitt said he wasn't at his peak. "We're only in the third round, so you don't want to play your best tennis yet," he said. "You've just go to try and find a way to win the first few rounds, get your way into the tournament." Hewitt, who "bombed out" in the first round last year while recovering from chickenpox, said it was a big relief to make the second week. "For the last few Grand Slams I've been able to play some of my best tennis toward the end rather than at the start. This is the time now your really have to step it up another gear." His next opponent is Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui, seeded 18th and a U.S. Open quarterfinalist last year, who beat Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8). Marat Safin, the men's runner-up last year, withdrew from his third-round match against Germany's Rainer Schuettler because of a wrist injury. The third-seeded Safin, who came into the week with a shoulder problem, said his left wrist was too swollen to play. "I couldn't hold the racket," Safin said. Schuettler will play James Blake, the 23rd-seeded American who advanced beyond the third round for the first time in a major with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Spain's Alberto Martin. In other matches, sixth-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland beat Sweden's Andreas Vinciguerra 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, 25th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia upset seventh-seeded Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, and ninth-seeded American Andy Roddick beat Spain's Fernando Vicente 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. The 20-year-old Roddick will face Youzhny in the fourth round. "He won the Davis Cup for Russia, so nothing is going to faze him at the moment," said Roddick, who has lost twice to Youzhny. "I think I'm playing better tennis than the times I've played him before." Federer will face Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian, the 10th-seeded Argentine who led No. 20 Xavier Malisse 4-6, 6-2, 6-0, 3-0 when the Belgian player retired because of fatigue. "I think Roger is a great player, but I know him from juniors. From a long time ago I beat him two times," Nalbandian. "I think it's going to be a tough match, but I have a strong chance." Serena beat Venus in the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals last year after missing the Australian Open because of an ankle injury. "She's never sat down and told me, 'Serena I'm going to take No. 1 away from you.' But I'm sure that's what she wants to do," Serena said. "She's working hard, she's playing really well. She is just on a different level from a lot of the girls and everyone else. When I'm practicing with her, I don't know how I was ever able to beat her. I'm just trying to do what I can to stay in the position." Serena's first priority is overcoming No. 18 Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over No. 16 Nathalie Dechy of France. Clijsters will face No. 19 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, a 6-0, 6-2 winner over No. 14 Anna Pistolesi of Israel. No. 10 Chanda Rubin reached the fourth round for a fourth consecutive Grand Slam with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Austrian qualifier Barbara Schwartz. The American will meet No. 8 Anastasia Myskina of Russia, a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 winner over No. 28 Clarisa Fernandez of Argentina. Another Russian, Elena Bovina, beat No. 11 Magdalena Maleeva 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 and next encounters No. 25 Meghann Shaughnessy, who ended Klara Koukalova's run with a 6-1, 6-3 defeat. Koukalova hadn't expected to go so far. She edged No. 6 Monica Seles in the second round after Seles sprained her ankle in the third game.
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