MOSCOW, January 22 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Yelena
Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced on Thursday to the
3rd round of the women's singles at the 2009 Australian Open,
while Igor Andreev progressed in the men's singles.
Fourth-seed Dementieva, who is also the 2008 Beijing
Olympics gold medalist, defeated unseeded Iveta Benesova of the
Czech Republic in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 and will now meet with
Australia's Samantha Stosur.
Her compatriot Kuznetsova (seeded 8) also enjoyed a quick
straight sets victory in a match against unseeded Tatjana Malek
of Germany. She will now meet Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko (31)
in the third round.
Andreev, however, fought through a tough match against
Latvia's Ernests Gulbis. After winning the first two sets, the
No. 18 seed dropped the next two, but managed to recover in the
fifth and final set for a 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-4 win.
He will now play ninth seed James Blake of the United
States in the third round.
In all, seven Russian women and two men have reached the
third round of the year's first Grand Slam.
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