MELBOURNE, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Russian third seed Nikolay Davydenko, fifth-seeded James Blake, eighth seed David Nalbandian and former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt advanced into the third round of the Australian Open's men's singles here on Thursday.

    Devydendo sounded a warning when he earned an easy win over Gilles Muller 6-4, 6-0, 6-3.

    A quarter-finalist the last two years running, Davydenko next confronts Fabrice Santoro, who disposed of fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.

    The 27--year-old Blake, who won five trophies in 2006 before opening 2007 with a successful title defense at last week's Sydney International, ousted fellow American Alex Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.

    The world No.5 will in the third round play his countryman Robby Ginepri, whom he won in straight sets in 2005 U.S. Open quarter-final.

    If Blake could be through to the fourth round, he could play Australia's great hope Hewitt, if the later can negotiate a path past in the third round either Chile's big-hitting 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez or Argentine young gun Juan Martin Del Potro.

    Later Thursday, Hewitt went into the third round with a four-set win over rising Canadian Frank Dancevic in a much harder-winning match.

    The former world No. 1, now the 19th seed, overcame a third-setnerve and an unusually high double-fault count to prevail 6-4, 6-4,3-6, 6-4 in two hours and 48 minutes.

    The eighth seed Nalbandian of Argentina who fought a hard match in extreme heat in his opening round, beat Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

    Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, the 13th seed, defeated Robert Smeets, Australia's another men's singles hope, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

    Andy Murray of Britain, the 15th seed, the only player apart from Rafael Nadal to lower Federer's colours last year, ousted Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, 6-4.