MELBOURNE, Australia — U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters took another step toward winning a second consecutive Grand Slam with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Tamarine Tanasugarn in the second round of the Australian Open.
Clijsters won the last six games after dropping serve in the second set against the 32- year-old Thai veteran who was playing her 51st major.
Clijsters will next play No. 19 Nadia Petrova, one of the Russian women already into the third round after French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Kirilenko advanced earlier today.
Sixth-seeded Venus Williams opened with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Lucie Safarova, while Melanie Oudin, the 18- year-old American who made a surprising run to last year’s U.S. Open quarterfinals, lost 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 to Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia.
On the men’s side, No. 7 Andy Roddick had a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci and No. 11 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, the 2007 runner-up, beat Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.
Roger Federer had a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (2), 6-0 first-round victory over Russia’s Igor Andreev, while No. 3 Novak Djokovic, the 2008 champion here, beat Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.
“I did know it was going to be tough,” Federer said. “We played five sets in New York two years back, and I really had to adjust my game to beat (Andreev). I think I definitely got lucky to get out of that one. It was a fortunate third set today. I prefer easier matches, but this worked as well.”
