Roger Federer, Amelie Mauresmo, Marat Safin, Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced to the third round of Australian Openin Melbourne on Wednesday.

World No. 1 Roger Federer had to work hard to play with world 203 Japan's Takeo Suzuki. Federer finally beat Suzuki 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in 113 minutes which is much longer than people predicted before.

"I had to play a good match to win," Federer said on court after the match.

"Thanks to the way Takeo Suzuki played tonight, it was very entertaining and I am already looking forward to the next time I play him," said Federer.

He will next play Finn Jarkko Nieminen.

In the first big match of the day, world No. 2 Amelie Mauresmo beat World No. 44 Dinara Safina 2-6, 6-1, 6-0. Safina is younger sister of men's fourth seed Marat Safin.

The 18-year-old unseeded Russian won the first four games of the match and then won the first set quickly.

But Mauresmo bucked the trend in the following sets. She will play either Serb teenager Ana Ivanovic or Russian Maria Kirilenko in the third round on Friday.

The Russian fourth seed Safin beat Bohdan Ulihrach of the CzechRepublic 6-4, 6-1, 6-3.

Four-time champion Andre Agassi outclassed German Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 6-1, 6-0 in 87 minutes in what was a re-match of their 2003 final that Agassi won.

The eighth seed will next play fellow American Taylor Dent on Friday for a place in the last 16.

Fourth-seeded Sharapova cast aside Lindsay Lee-Waters of the United States 4-6, 6-0, 6-3. In the third round, the fourth seed will play with China's Na Li who outclassed Japanese 28th seed Shinobu Asagoe 6-3, 6-4 and became the third Chinese woman player to advance into the third round of the Australian Open.

Seventh seeded Serena Williams outclassed Madagascan Dally Randriantefy in a 6-3, 6-0 win which only last 48 minutes.

Williams, the 2003 champion, will play Indian Sania Mirza on Friday. Mirza beat Petra Mandula 6-2, 6-1 earlier in the day.

Fifth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, the reigning US Open champion,beat Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-3 and will play either 29thseed Gisela Dulko or Mariana Diaz-Oliva in the next round.

Source: Xinhua