Venus Prevails Down Under

Second seed Venus Williams made light work of qualifier Ansley Cargill 6-3, 6-0 to saunter into the third round of the Australian Open.

Williams, showing a marked improvement on her first-round win over Svetlana Kuznetsova, completely outplayed her fellow American to seal victory in less than an hour.

She broke Cargill's first service game to take the opening set in 32 minutes, then raced through the second in just 20 minutes to seal a textbook victory.

Williams crushed Cargill 6-2, 6-2 in the opening round here last year when the 118th-ranked American was making her first appearance in the tournament and was even more ruthless second time around.

She hammered 39 winners to Cargill's three, but her eagerness to go for the quick kill saw her commit 28 unforced errors and three double faults.

She next plays Anca Barna in the third round after the German upset 27th seed Lisa Raymond 6-3, 6-1.

A slimline Lindsay Davenport was hustled and harried all the way before finally overcoming Iroda Tulyaganova 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 to reach the third round.

The former champion, noticeably lighter than when she lifted the trophy here in 2000, struggled to find any consistency throughout but in the end did just enough against the feisty Uzbek.

Relieved, she let out a screech of delight after whipping a forehand cross court past the 57th-ranked Tulyaganova to finally bury her tenacious foe.

"I was getting tired. It was long sets, long points. More than anything I wanted to finish it off," smiled Davenport afterwards.

"She was hitting a lot of good shots, it was a long and tiring match."

The ninth seed now faces Russia's Tatiana Panova.

Anna Kournikova was somewhat less successful, however, falling to the heaviest grand slam defeat of her less-than-glittering eight-year career.

The Russian was destroyed 6-0, 6-1 by fifth-seeded Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne and rushed from the court immediately after her 48-minute ordeal ended, red-faced and clearly upset by the one-sided humiliation.

More than an hour later, make-up reapplied and wearing a natty black tracksuit top and black cap, Kournikova put a brave face on the debacle.

"We were both on the court... I think it was a match," she said, somewhat uncertain.

Her previous worst showing at a grand slam event was when she lost 6-2, 6-1 to Steffi Graf in the fourth round of the 1996 US Open.

"I really had no weapons against her today," was the pretty ineffective Russian's verdict. "I tried to find a way, but it was too hard."

Henin, however, was delighted, if a little bemused, by the ease of her win.

"Sometimes it was just, yeah... amazing," she said, before turning her attention to Katarina Srebotnik, her opponent in the third round.

Australian Open women's second round singles results

2-Venus Williams (US) beat Ansley Cargill (U.S.) 6-3, 6-0

9-Lindsay Davenport (US) beat Iroda Tulyaganova (Uzbekistan) 6-7 (7-9), 6-4, 7-5

Evie Dominikovic (Australia) beat 22-Anne Kremer (Luxembourg) 6-1, 6-4

24-Tatiana Panova (Russia) beat Akiko Morigami (Japan) 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 5-Justine Henin-Hardenne (Belgium) beat Anna Kournikova (Russia) 6-0, 6-1

7-Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) beat Adrianna Serra Zanetti (Italy) 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3)

Nadia Petrova (Russia) beat 21-Ai Sugiyama (Japan) 6-4, 6-4

12-Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) beat Marta Marrero (Spain) 6-3, 6-1

Nicole Pratt (Australia) beat 13-Silvia Farina Elia (Italy) 6-3, 6-2

Anca Barna (Germany) beat 27-Lisa Raymond (US) 6-3, 6-1

Samantha Stosur (Australia) beat Vanessa Webb (Canada) 6-4, 6-1

23-Paola Suarez (Argentina) beat Tathiana Garbin (Italy) 6-0, 3-0 (retired)

Marlene Weingartner (Germany) beat Stephanie Foretz (France) 3-6, 6-1, 6-2

Virginie Ruano Pascual (Spain) beat 30-Janette Husarova (Slovakia) 5-7, 7-5, 6-0

Denisa Chladkova (Czech Republic) beat 15-Alexandra Stevenson (US) 6-2, 6-2

32-Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) beat Virginie Razzano (France) 6-1, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3