CANBERRA, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Top-seeded Serena
Williams and second seed Dinara Safina went through second-round in ease Tuesday
to move into the Sydney International quarterfinals.
Williams, who was stretched to three sets and saved
four match points in her opening match against Samantha Stosur of Australia,
beat Sara Errani of Italy 6-1, 6-2 in 50 minutes.
Safina finished off a 6-3, 6-0 win over fellow
Russian Vera Dushevina in just over an hour.
Four other seeded players in the women's draw at the
joint ATP-WTA tournament also advanced Tuesday.
No. 3 Elena Dementieva of Russia beat Jarmila
Gajdosova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-4 and No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia beat
Estonia's Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (7-3).
Sixth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland defeated
Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 7-5 and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, the
eighth-seeded player, beat Britain's Melanie South 6-2, 6-0.
Williams will play Wozniacki in the quarterfinals.
In another match, Japan's Ai Sugiyama beat Anabel
Medina Garrigues of Spain 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.
In first-round men's play, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia
defeated eighth-seeded Mardy Fish of the United States 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; former No.
1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia continued his comeback from a five-month injury
layoff to beat Frenchman Julien Benneteau5-7, 6-2, 6-4 and Paul-Henri Mathieu of
France beat Italian Andreas Seppi 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
The top four men's seeds received first-round byes.
Djokovic, who begins the defense of his Australian Open title next week in
Melbourne, plays Mathieu on Wednesday.