French Open champion Kuznetsova becomes first player into 3rd round at Australian Open

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Kuznetsova reaches third round at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia — French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova became the first player into the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-2 win Wednesday over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

The third-seeded Kuznetsova was dominant after taking a 5-1 lead in the first set by breaking Pavlyuchenkova’s first two service games.

She got on top of most rallies with a strong forehand and had 27 winners against only seven for Pavlyuchenkova.

Kuznetsova, who has two Grand Slam singles championships — adding the French last year to her win at the 2004 U.S. Open — has a chance to reach the No. 1 ranking for the first time if she clinches the Australian Open title.

In eight previous trips to Melbourne Park, Kuznetsova has advanced to the quarterfinals twice, including last year when she lost to eventual champion Serena Williams after being up a set and a break.

This year, the 24-year-old Russian is feeling more confident of winning.

“Yes, definitely, I know all the way how to go — I’ve done it twice,” Kuznetsova said. “It’s exciting. You always have different motivation at the Grand Slams — I love to play here.”

No. 4 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who lost the U.S. Open final to Kim Clijsters in September, had a 6-4, 6-2 first-round win over Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak.

In other first-round matches carried over from the rain-interrupted opening days, No. 7 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat French wild card Stephanie Cohen-Aloro 6-2, 6-0, No. 9 Vera Zvonareva beat Kristina Kucova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-0 and No. 16 Li Na of China, a quarterfinalist at the U.S. Open, beat New Zealander Marina Erakovic 6-2, 6-0.

Serena Williams returned to Grand Slam play Tuesday for the first time since her tirade against the line judge who called her for a foot fault during her U.S. Open semifinal loss to Clijsters.

And while the 11-time major winner did seem less effusive than usual on court, Williams didn’t hold back after her 6-2, 6-1 win over 18-year-old Urszula Radwanska about what she thought of the punishment.

“I don’t know whoever got fined like that. People said worse, done worse,” she said, “I think it was a bit much.”

Williams was fined $82,500 and warned she could be suspended from the U.S. Open for another “major offense” at any Grand Slam event in the next two years. Williams said she doubts whether one of the top men would have drawn such a fine.

“In tennis I think we’ve been able to do really well with having fought so hard to get equal prize money,” said Williams, who last year became the first woman to surpass $6 million in prize money in a season. “I think that’s really good,” she said. “But I think we still sort of, say, live in a man’s world. Some incidents can bring you back to life and back into reality.”

Williams acknowledges that “what I did wasn’t right, but I turned that around. She set up a charity auction with the aim of raising $92,000 for “ladies, women … schools in Africa … Haiti.” Sister Venus Williams contributed a memorabilia item for the sale.

Venus, seeded sixth, opened with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Lucie Safarova. Also advancing were No. 8 Jelena Jankovic, No. 11 Marion Bartoli, No. 13 Sam Stosur and No. 19 Nadia Petrova. 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.

Roger Federer hadn’t dropped a set in the opening round of a major for six years and was on track to continue that run when he was a break up against Igor Andreev, whose girlfriend Maria Kirilenko ousted 2008 champion Maria Sharapova on the opening day at Melbourne Park.

Andreev rallied, breaking the 15-time Grand Slam winner twice to take the first set. The Russian had three set points on serve to take a 2-1 lead, but each time he was undone by a forehand error and Federer withstood the challenge — breaking to force a tiebreaker and then dominating the rest of the way in his 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (2), 6-0 first-round win.

“I think I definitely got lucky to get out of that one. It was a fortunate third set,” Federer said. “I prefer easier matches, but this worked as well.”

No. 3 Novak Djokovic, the 2008 champion, struggled in the first set before beating Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 in a night match.

Advancing were: sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, No. 9 Fernando Verdasco, No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 12 Gael Monfils, No. 19 Stanislas Wawrinka, No. 20 Mikhail Youzhny and No. 21 Tomas Berdych.

Rafal Nadal, the defending champion, plays Lukas Lacko at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday. U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro faces James Blake, and No. 5 Andy Murray and No. 7 Andy Roddick also are in action.

No. 2 Dinara Safina, the 2009 runner-up, had a day match before her Russian compatriot, Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva, faces one of the toughest challenges of the first week — a second-round match against Justine Henin.

Henin, a seven-time Grand Slam winner Henin coming back from 20 months in retirement, is unranked and playing on a wild card in her first major since the 2008 Australian Open.