JOIN USTop three seeds Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray moved into the third round of the Cincinnati Open with relatively comfortable straight set victories on Wednesday.
World number two Djokovic beat Italian Andreas Seppi 7-6, 6-2 while Olympic gold medallist Murray strolled past American Sam Querrey 6-2, 6-4. Federer crushed Russian-American journeyman Alex Bogomolov Jr 6-3, 6-2.
Serb Djokovic, who won the ATP Masters tournament at Toronto last week, knew he was in for a tough test from Seppi after needing to come back from two sets down to win in five when they met in the French Open.
It was a tight affair in the first set, won on a tie-break by Djokovic, and then the five-times grand slam singles champion comfortably secured the second.
Murray pulled out of Toronto last week due to concerns over his knee but he looked in good shape as he dominated Querrey. Murray's serve was too much for his opponent and his defence was strong enough to break serve on three straight service games in the first set to gain control.
Murray said Querrey's recent run of good form had made him raise his game.
The main positive for Murray was that he had no discomfort with his knee.
Federer dealt with Bogomolov Jr in an hour of one-sided tennis.
"It was very fast out there and so there wasn't much chance for rallies and that can be frustrating when you are on the losing side but he put up a good fight," Federer said charitably.
American James Blake made an early exit after 22-year-old Japanese Kei Nishikori recovered from a poor first set to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Mardy Fish is the sole American man left in the competition. He beat Argentine Carlos Berlocq 6-3, 6-1.
German Tommy Haas and Australian Lleyton Hewitt have both hinted at mini-revivals in form but their bids here ended in the second round. Haas battled hard in the first against sixth-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro but ended up losing 7-5, 6-2 and Hewitt was badly out of sorts as he was crushed 6-2, 6-0 by Serb Viktor Troicki.
Venus advances
Venus Williams fought back from a set down to beat South Africa's Chanelle Scheepers 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 as the top seeds advanced with little trouble.
Williams will now meet Italian Sara Errani for a quarterfinal berth following the seventh seed's 6-4, 6-4 win over Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova. Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson 6-4, 6-3 to book her place in the third round.