MELBOURNE, Australia -- Defending champion Lindsay Davenport, who struggled through the first two rounds of the Australian Open, had an easier time Friday in beating Silvia Farina Elia 6-2, 6-1.
|  | | At the end of her match, crowd-favorite Anna Kournikova tossed her towel into the crowd, where a group of young men played tug of war over it. |
On the warmest day of the tournament, with temperatures expected
to reach 90 degrees, Davenport dominated the first center court
match. She raced to a 4-0 lead in each set and closed out the victory in 63 minutes.
Four-time champion Monica Seles of the United States beat France's Emilie Loit 6-3, 7-5 in the women's night match.
Also, No. 8 seed Anna Kournikova battled back from a set down to beat her Austrian
doubles partner Barbara Schett 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 and reach the fourth round. Rising Belgian star Justine Henin, who has already won two tournaments this year, eliminated No. 14 Sandrine Testud 6-2, 6-4, and No. 12 Jennifer Capriati swept Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-0, 6-2.
Seles, Australian Open champion in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1996, took the opening set in half an hour and then broke her opponent's serve to lead 5-4 in the second.
She failed to serve out the match when she handed the break back with a double-fault, but Seles quickly made up for her mistake by claiming the next two games to seal victory. Seles will play Henin on Sunday for a place in the
quarterfinals.
Kournikova's search for a first career singles title almost came to another premature end against the consistent Schett, who broke Kournikova's serve for a 3-1 lead in the second set and seemed on course for a major upset.
Kournikova, still trying to regain full strength after battling a flu bug last week, struggled with her groundstrokes early in the match on court one at Melbourne Park, which in turn put pressure on her often-fragile serve.
But she regained her composure to break back in the fifth
game of the second set and then dominated the closing stages
against world No. 21 Schett, who had made the fourth round
the previous three years in Melbourne.
|  | | American Lindsay Davenport serves during her third round match against Italy's Silvia Farina Elia on Friday. Davenport won in straight sets 6-2, 6-1. |
The No. 2-seeded Davenport's opponent in the fourth round will
be No. 15 Kim Clijsters, who won the first 11 games and beat
qualifier Nuria Llagostera 6-0, 6-1. When Llagostera finally got on
the board by holding serve in the next-to-last game, the Spaniard
pumped her fist and grinned.
Davenport, pushed to three sets in wins over Jelena Dokic and Greta Arn, had less trouble with Farina Elia. The American struggled with her serve but feasted on the Italian's second serve and moved better than in her previous match.
"I'm a lot happier with the way I played," Davenport said. "You can tell when you're hitting the ball cleanly and well, even when you might not win every point. I was hitting with more power and depth and all that good stuff I've been lacking the last couple
of matches."
One long rally had Davenport scrambling from sideline to sideline, but she managed to chase down a backhand and yank it crosscourt for a winner.
Her groundstrokes were again a bit erratic, however, and she needed five match points in the final game to close out the victory.
Davenport is 2-0 against the 17-year-old Clijsters, with both matches three-setters last year.
"It's a tough match," Davenport said of facing Clijsters. "It's funny -- for so
many years I was the youngest player. Now I'm one of the oldest.
The young girls are very fiery and have a hard-hitting game, and
they go for their shots.
"The two times I played Kim, they were tough three-set matches.
I don't expect anything different this time."
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