Serena Williams returns to form 'Down Under'

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Serena Williams was back in "Serena slam" form Thursday.

After nearly losing her opener, Williams advanced to the Australian Open's third round with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Belgian Els Callens, who gave the world's No. 1 player a tough challenge at Wimbledon last year.

Williams now is five matches away from becoming the reigning champion of all four major tournaments.

Her potential semifinal opponent, No. 4 Kim Clijsters, advanced with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Hungary's Petra Mandula in 33 minutes. It was the first perfect scoreline of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Czech player Radek Stepanek, who climbed from 547th to 63rd in the rankings last year, knocked out three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten, who never has advanced beyond the second round in the Australian Open. Stepanek won 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in 3 hours, 47 minutes.

Kuerten, seeded 30th, became the 13th casualty among the 32 seeded men. The top 10, however, is missing only No. 5 Carlos Moya, a 3-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 loser to American Mardy Fish on Wednesday night.

Third-seeded Marat Safin, the 2000 U.S. Open champion and last year's Australian runner-up, advanced by beating France's Albert Montanes 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. No. 6 Roger Federer defeated Germany's Lars Burgsmuller 6-3, 6-0, 6-3.

Last year, an injury on the eve of the Australian Open ruined Williams' chance for a true Grand Slam -- winning all four majors in the same calendar year. She went on to beat sister Venus Williams in the finals at the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.

A rash of errors left Williams on the verge of defeat before she rallied to edge France's Emilie Loit on Tuesday. This time, she said she was inspired by Venus' 6-3, 6-0 victory over Ansley Cargill the previous night.

"She played a great match," Serena said of her sister. "I was motivated after watching her, thinking, 'OK, she wants to be No. 1 again."'

Serena faced two break points in her first service game, but she then broke Callens at 15 in the fifth game by hitting winners or forcing errors. Callens, ranked 66th, managed to hold serve twice more in the first set but had no answer for Williams' power.

Williams needed two tiebreakers to beat her in the third round at Wimbledon.

In the opener here, she acknowledged being "a little too lackadaisical" against Loit. She vented her frustration in that match with an audible obscenity, for which she was fined $1,500 on Thursday.

She had few troubles this time. She hit 21 winners to Callens' eight and had 19 errors to Callens' 20.

"I have five more matches to go. It's going to be really tough," Williams said, noting that Clijsters and No. 6 Monica Seles are in her half of the draw.

Seles beat Venus in the quarterfinals here last year. Clijsters beat both sisters on her way to winning the WTA Tour Championships in November.

As for playing against her sister, Serena said, "We've gotten use to it. If it comes to the final, at least we've both reached our maximum potential."

Serena next plays No. 26 Tamarine Tanasugarn, a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 winner over Russian Alina Jidkova.

In other men's matches, Spain's Alberto Martin ousted No. 13 Fernando Gonzalez 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (4).

Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian, seeded 10th, beat Australian qualifier Jaymon Crabb 6-1, 7-6 (10), 6-3, No. 18 Younes El Aynaoui defeated Uzbek qualifier Vadim Kutsenko 6-2, 6-1, 6-4, and No. 20 Xavier Malisse beat France's Anthony Dupuis 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-5.

No. 23 James Blake beat Argentina's Jose Acasuso 6-1, 6-4, 6-4; No. 31 Rainer Schuettler ousted 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek 6-3, 7-5, 6-4; Spain's Feliciano Lopez defeated American Robby Ginepri 6-2, 6-4, 6-2; and Swedish qualifier Andreas Vinciguerra advanced when Austrian Julian Knowle retired with a torn right calf. Vinciguerra was leading 6-2, 0-1.

On the women's side, No. 14 Anna Pistolesi advanced when Slovenia's Maja Matevzic retired with a right lower leg strain. Pistolesi was leading 5-1.

No. 16 Nathalie Dechy beat Czech player Daja Bedanova 6-3, 6-3, No. 18 Eleni Daniilidou beat American Amy Frazier 6-1, 6-2, No. 20 Elena Bovina defeated Italy's Rita Grande 6-1, 6-2, and No. 25 Meghann Shaughnessy beat Slovakia's Ludmila Cervanova 6-1, 6-1.

While Venus was impressive on Wednesday, Andre Agassi was more so. He lost the first seven points of his second-round match against South Korean Lee Hyung-taik, then the three-time champion won 18 straight games for a 6-1, 6-0, 6-0 victory in just 80 minutes.

Lindsay Davenport was lucky to advance in three sets.

After a rocky match in the first round, Venus enjoyed herself in her victory over Cargill, an American ranked 118th.

"I was playing a lot of good points in a row. I also was able to start being aggressive because I was more consistent," said Venus, who had 28 errors but 39 winners. She's hoping to add to her collection of four Grand Slam tournament trophies.

Agassi also knows a bit about success at major tournaments: He's second to Pete Sampras among active players with seven major titles. But he lost the first game and was down 40-0 in the second against Lee, who last week in Sydney became the first South Korean to win an ATP Tour title.

"When you play a guy of Lee's quality, playing as well as he's been playing, to go out there and have a scoreline like that doesn't happen too often," said Agassi, who won the Australian Open in 1995, 2000 and 2001. "Needless to say, I felt great about everything."

Davenport, who has won three majors including the 2000 Australian, had to rally from a 3-1 deficit in the final set for a 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-5 victory over 57th-ranked Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan. Davenport was helped by a series of errors by her opponent in the final game.

She missed most of last year after knee surgery in January but still reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open.