Young Serbs make third round

January 21, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic cruised into the third round of the Australian Open today, with both 21-year-old Serbs looking as if they could make another memorable run in the season’s first major.

Ivanovic beat Italian Alberta Brianti 6-3, 6-2 at Rod Laver Arena, and defending men’s champion Djokovic followed with a 7-5, 6-1, 6-3 win over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.

Chardy matched the third-ranked Djokovic shot for shot before wilting while trying to force a tiebreaker in the first set.

Djokovic, who ended Roger Federer’s 19-match winning streak at Melbourne Park in last year’s semifinals, was dominating on his serve against Chardy, faltering only when he was broken at love while serving for the match.

But he broke right back, finishing it off when Chardy netted a forehand on match point.

Ivanovic lost the last Australian Open final to Maria Sharapova, then won her first Grand Slam title at the French Open and gained the No. 1 ranking.

Now seeded fifth, she is drawing inspiration from her last run here. Sharapova is not defending the title because of a shoulder injury.

“I was in this situation before French Open last year, coming into the tournament as pretty serious finalist,” she said. “That experience will help me a lot to approach this Australian Open.”

Dictating play and ripping winners into the corners, Ivanovic repeatedly took advantage of Brianti’s weak serve. The 28-year-old Italian held serve only three times.

No. 169-ranked Brianti needed treatment for her lower back and took a medical time out after getting broken to fall behind 3-0 in the second set.

She returned to break Ivanovic’s serve and held to pull back to 3-2, but lost the next three games. Ivanovic, pushing the limits with her shots, had the same number of winners as unforced errors (26).

She won 17 of her 27 net approaches, a sign she’s growing in confidence moving forward.

“I improved a lot since last match. I was committing much more, coming to the net more often,” she said, adding she still had plenty to improve.

“When you come against top players or high-ranked players, you automatically raise your level and your consistency. That’s something that I can do.”

Another Serb, women’s No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, was playing later today.

No. 3 Dinara Safina overcame 44 unforced errors in a 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-0 win over fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova and will next play No. 25 Kaie Kanepi of Estonia.

Safina lost to a qualifier in the first round here last year, but went on to be runner-up at the French Open, take the Olympic silver medal and reach the U.S. Open semifinals.