MELBOURNE, Australia - Three of the contenders in second round doubles action Friday at the Australian Open gave up a combined three games, two of which were surrendered by Russians Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova.
The No.5 seeds were 61 61 victors over Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Urszula Radwanska. Kirilenko and Petrova's history together isn't extensive, but their resume includes two titles, a 17-4 match record and a semifinal showing at their only previous major - last year's US Open.
Third-seeded Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova were even more convincing in their 49-minute, 61 60 rout of Australian wildcards Bojana Bobusic and Sacha Jones. The two-time major champions are now 24-3 in Grand Slam matches.
No one was more dominant than No.2 seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond. The Americans dropped a mere 17 points in their 45-minute 60 60 defeat of Alexandra Dulgheru and Virginie Razzano. Huber's doubles accomplishments are legendary, but her first double bagel didn't occur until her 565th match win on Friday. Raymond, who is now up to 750 doubles wins, had two previous double bagel victories - at the Australian Open in 2000 alongside Rennae Stubbs and at Memphis in 2008 with Lindsay Davenport. As if her day wasn't productive enough, Raymond and Rohan Bopanna later dropped just one game in their first round mixed doubles win.
Attempting to slow down Huber and Raymond's momentum in the third round will be Andreja Klepac and Alicja Rosolska, 75 64 winners over 13th-seeded Spaniards Nuria Llagostera Vives and Arantxa Parra Santonja. Sixteenth-seeded Vera Dushevina and Shahar Peer also went down, 62 62, at the hands of Polona Hercog and Zheng Jie. Others to advance were 11th-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci and dangerous Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva.
No.1 seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik and defending champions Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta are among those on Saturday's schedule.
