Clijsters Campaign Gathers Pace

Kim Clijsters produced a ruthless destruction of second-round rival Marissa Irvin today, dropping only two games in an impressive show of power-hitting.

The Belgian, battling back from a wrist operation which put her out of the Australian Open in January and knee problem which affected her preparation for the French Open where she went out in the fourth round, admittedly came up against a tentative opponent in Californian Irvin after breezing by British youngster Katie O'Brien in the first round.

But not many would have lived with her booming baseline assault and settled attitude on grass in this 6-1, 6-1 demolition.

The former world No1, who started the year at 85 after her surgery and would not even consider the award of a protected ranking, has risen now back to 13 and looks set to come up against the present top player and Wimbledon top seed Lindsay Davenport.

She has already beaten Davenport this year before the French Open when she collected back-to-back titles in America in March and April - before damaging her knee in Germany.

Today she was on the same Number One court as her compatriot Justine Henin-Hardenne who was shocked into three-set defeat by Greece's Eleni Daniilidou yesterday but had control against Irvin right from the start.

She achieved a break in the first game before landing a 112mph first-serve and opening up a 4-0 lead which settled the set.

And the breakthrough came again in the second set in the fourth game as Irvin, 26 tomorrow, was reduced to fighting for her pride.

Third seed Amelie Mauresmo also wasted little time in breezing through into round three after a 6-1, 6-3 cruise against Maria Sanchez Lorenzo.

Mauresmo, twice a semi-finalist here, showed just why she is going to be a major threat in this year's competition when she broke her Spanish opponent at the first time of asking and then again in the third game following a blistering display of serve volley tennis.

The Frenchwoman also had too much power, both from the baseline and in her service game, for Sanchez Lorenzo and she closed out the first set in just 19 minutes.

At the start of the second set the 27-year-old Spaniard, ranked 113 in the world, looked more composed and the games went with serve.

However, the break finally came in the eighth game when Mauresmo again began to move up the court and an unforced error from Sanchez Lorenzo handed her the chance to serve for the set.

Helped by a crashing serve of 113mph and then a divine cross-court winner at the net, Mauresmo moved 40-15 ahead. She did not waste the opportunity, sealing a highly-impressive win following another superbly executed drop-shot.