Tennis | Henin extends victory streak

MELBOURNE, Australia — Defending champion Serena Williams and top-ranked Justine Henin pushed aside two more overmatched opponents in the Australian Open, advancing to the fourth round with straight-set victories.

Williams, 26-1 with three titles at Melbourne Park since the start of 2003, beat No. 26 Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-4.

Top-seeded Henin, 15-1 in Melbourne since the start of the '04 tournament that she won, overcame serving troubles to hold off 25th-seeded Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 6-4.

Henin extended her winning streak to 31, dating to the Wimbledon semifinals. But the Belgian star's path to the championship is tough, with both of last year's finalists potentially in her path.

Williams will face No. 12 Nicole Vaidisova, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-4.

Henin will play Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei, who beat Aravane Rezai 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 in the third round.

"I hate to look too far," Henin said. "I just want to get ready, improve my game and be in my best shape. I know the draw, but I like to stay concentrated on myself."

No. 5 Maria Sharapova beat one fellow Russian, Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-0, and faces another in the fourth round after No. 11 Elena Dementieva beat Israel's Shahar Peer 6-2, 6-0.

No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko, the fourth seed in the men's draw, has not dropped a set in three rounds, beating France's Marc Gicquel 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.

No. 2 Rafael Nadal saved six set points in the first against Frenchman Gilles Simon before winning 7-5, 6-2, 6-3, his nine-game run until he took a 4-0 lead in the second set turning the match around.

Marcos Baghdatis downed 2005 champion Marat Safin 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 in a momentum-swinging match that started Thursday and stretched into the next morning and completed the second round.

Swiss star Roger Federer, aiming for a third straight Australian title, won the last 10 games in a 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 win over Fabrice Santoro on Thursday.

Note

• Video of Baghdatis, a Greek Cypriot, holding a flare and apparently yelling "Turks Out," emerged in the Australian media Friday, 10 months after it was posted on a video-sharing Web site. The 2006 runner-up did not apologize for the video in a statement released Friday in response to criticism from Melbourne's Turkish-Cypriot community, but said he wanted to concentrate only on tennis. Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974.