Big guns fire in Melbourne but Ivanovic flops

The Williams sisters stamped their authority on the Australian Open Thursday alongside Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko, but former world number one Ana Ivanovic was sent packing.

On a hot day, defending champion Serena showed she was still the woman to beat, barely breaking a sweat as she crushed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-1 in the second round.

Much of the talk at this year's tournament has been about the return of Belgian pair, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, and how either of them could win the opening Grand Slam of 2010.

But Williams sent out a clear message that anyone who wants to lift the trophy will have to get past her to do so.

"Today I was better than my first round match, I was moving better, better energy. All round a lot better," she said.

"I feel like I could have played a lot better today."

Sister Venus, a seven-time Grand Slam champion but yet to win in Melbourne, was more workmanlike, grinding down Austrian Sybille Bammer 6-2, 7-5 and then playing down her chances.

"I don't necessarily put a lot of importance on if I played well one day or not. It's really about winning the match and then improving for the next day," she said.

"I'm not into 'Oh, well, I'm in form so I'll do well; or I'm not in form'."

Third seed Djokovic overcame some early first set wobbles to ease past Swiss Marco Chiudinelli 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena and set up a third round clash with Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin.

More impressive was Russian sixth seed Davydenko, who is shaping as a serious title contender after extending his winning streak to 11 matches.

The 28-year-old has yet to win a Grand Slam and has never been in a final but his 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 disposal of Ukrainian Illya Marchenko served notice that his time may have come. For Ivanovic, it looks like her time has past. The former finalist and world number one put in an error-riddled performance to crash out to Argentinian Gisela Dulko 6-7 (6/8), 7-5, 6-4, with her groundstrokes deserting her.

She has slipped down the rankings to be outside the top 20 for the first time in five years, and Thursday's flop was the sixth time in her past seven tournaments where she had failed to go beyond the second round. Fellow Serb Djokovic was off his game in the opening set, conceding two service breaks and hitting double the number of unforced errors than Chiudinelli. But he took control of the match to ease through.

Davydenko stayed on track for a quarter-final with Roger Federer with his comprehensive hammering of Marchenko.

In other matches, Danish fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki breezed past Germany's Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-1 while ninth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonereva had an easy 6-0, 6-3 win over Czech Iveta Benesova. Former finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus advanced past David Ferrer 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 6-1 and will next face Australian Lleyton Hewitt, who had a straight sets victory. MELBOURNE, AFP