Serena Williams, Davenport advance to third round

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — With Andy Roddick's personal cheering section leading the way, it was a red, white and blue day at the Australian Open.

The second-seeded Roddick shrugged off an ankle injury and was nearly perfect in beating Wesley Moodie of South Africa 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round Wednesday.

Roddick's cheering session included a group of young women who wore red, blue and silver hats, had the letters of his name painted on their bare stomachs and cheered him throughout.

With a sprinkling of American flags around Rod Laver Arena, it almost looked as if Roddick was playing at the U.S. Open.

When Moodie, the Wimbledon doubles champion, netted a backhander on match point, Roddick turned to the group of fans and pumped his fist as they chanted "U-S-A!"

"Would you believe me if I said every one of those is my cousin?" Roddick said jokingly afterward. "It's nice when you have 30-some-odd girls in bikinis cheering for you."

Roddick was at the top of his game, yielding only 17 points in 15 service games and committing only nine unforced errors.

"I'll take that most days," he said.

Defending women's champion Serena Williams used her match against soft-hitting Camille Pin of France as a virtual practice session while extending her winning streak at the Australian Open to 16 matches with a 6-3, 6-1 victory.

Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport had to work a little harder to defeat Karolina Sprem of Croatia.

Fourth-seeded Maria Sharapova overcame 31 unforced errors and fended off three set points for American qualifier Ashley Harkleroad in the second set to advance 6-1, 7-5.

James Blake, seeded 20th, rallied from a set down to oust French qualifier Jean-Christophe Faurel. Robby Ginepri could have made it an even better day for the U.S. contingent but fell to qualifier Denis Gremelmayr after winning the first two sets and leading 3-0 in the third.

American qualifier Ashley Harkleroad was facing fourth-seeded Maria Sharapova in a night schedule that also included men's No. 4 David Nalbandian of Argentina taking on Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

Moodie tried to pressure Roddick, rushing the net behind a serve that was nearly as fast as Roddick's. Despite his deft volleying, Moodie won only 57 percent of his 58 net approaches as Roddick's passing shots left him lunging from side to side.

Roddick broke serve for the first time to take the first set. After Moodie fended off a break point and held for 3-3 in the second set, he didn't have another game point until he already was down 2-0 in the third set.

"I wanted to return well," Roddick said. "I feel like after the first four games of the match, I really started doing that. If I can do that, it will make my serve look that much better to the other guys."

Roddick said he slightly injured his right ankle early in the match, but hoped that the trainers would give it "a little TLC" and make it better.

Roddick, who shockingly lost in the first round of the U.S. Open, meets Julien Benneteau of France in the third round.

Williams, seeking her eighth Grand Slam title, lost her serve twice but broke Pin four times and finished with 30 winners against only six for the French player.

"It's never as easy as it looks," Williams said. "I'm just happy to be getting through the rounds."

Williams, backed by a vocal contingent in her first appearance on packed Vodafone Arena, seemed to get frustrated with the 130th-ranked Pin's lack of pace, pounding the ball harder and harder, grunting with the effort.

Pin didn't help herself by double-faulting twice while serving at 1-5 to set up double match point. Williams finished it by pouncing on a slow first serve and whacking a powerful crosscourt forehand winner.

Williams next faces 17th-seeded Daniel Hantuchova of Slovakia, who beat Asian wild-card entry Akgul Amanmuradova 6-4, 6-1. Williams won the Australian Open in 2003 and 2005, and missed the 2004 event because of injuries.

Sharapova got a tougher-than-expected challenge from the 107th-ranked Harkleroad and twice received treatment for a left foot blister in the second set.

After Sharapova overcame three break points while serving at 4-5 in the second set, Harkleroad double-faulted on break point to hand the Russian a 6-5 advantage. Sharapova held and finished off the match with a stinging forehand down the line that Harkleroad barely reached.

French Open champion and eighth-seed Justine Henin-Hardenne moved on with a 7-6 (2), 6-1 win over Hana Sromova, who badly turned her right ankle at 1-1 in the second set and lost the next five games.

Trailing 3-1 in the first set tiebreaker, Davenport rallied after Sprem double-faulted, winning six of the last seven points and claiming the first set with consecutive forehand winners.

"After being down in the tiebreaker, to come back and construct a few really good points, it was very key to get out of that," Davenport said.

Davenport will face 25th-seeded Maria Kirilenko, who had a 7-6 (1), 6-4 win over fellow Russian Galina Voskoboeva.

On the men's side, No. 7 Ivan Ljubicic, No. 8 Gaston Gaudio, No. 11 David Ferrer and No. 18 Mario Ancic advanced.

No. 13 Ginepri failed to reproduce his successful marathon efforts of the U.S. Open, where he set a record for most five-set matches played in a single Grand Slam tournament. He played four five-setters before losing in the semifinals to Andre Agassi.