Hewitt and Clijsters in a hurry to impress

Australian Open: Men's top seeds speed into third round as Belgian falls a minute short of fastest grand slam victory

Anything Andre Agassi can do, Lleyton Hewitt can do better – and so, for that matter, can his girlfriend, Kim Clijsters. While Agassi saw off his second-round opponent in 80 minutes at Melbourne Park, Hewitt, his main rival, took just 74 minutes yesterday. Then Clijsters waltzed through to the third round in 33 minutes after the second shortest match in grand-slam history.

Agassi's luckless victim on Wednesday was South Korea's Lee Hyung-Taik; Hewitt's was his fellow Australian, Todd Larkham. A qualifier ranked No 235 in the world, Larkham beat Hewitt seven years ago on the Australian satellite tour, but yesterday's 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 match was painfully one-sided. Larkham, who had treatment for shoulder pain, said: "I'm physically and mentally exhausted. I was totally outplayed."

Hewitt and Agassi, the two top-ranked players, are seeded to meet in the Australian Open final, with the 21-year-old Wimbledon champion itching to avenge his defeat by the Las Vegan at last year's US Open. "I saw how Andre went out there and chopped up Lee," he said yesterday. "It's a grand slam, you can't take any match lightly. You have to go out there and take your A game and hopefully it's good enough."

Larkham won his first service game to level at 1-1 and then crumbled, losing the next 13. He chalked up just nine points in the first set and seven in the second, raising his arms in mock jubilation when he held serve in the third game of the third set. Three games later, he double-faulted on the first match point.

Hewitt, who struggled to overcome Sweden's Magnus Larsson in five sets in the first round, said: "It's nice to have an easy match after a tough one. I felt really good out there. I felt I bounced back well. I felt hungry, I felt eager, I felt quick on my feet."

Had you blinked, you might have missed the 6-0, 6-0 encounter between Clijsters, the Belgian No 4 seed, and Hungary's Petra Mandula. The first set lasted 17 minutes, the second 16. Steffi Graf took just one minute less to demolish Natasha Svereva in the 1988 French Open final.

Mandula beat Jelena Dokic, the world No 9, last year. But Clijsters, who is seeded to meet the world No 1, Serena Williams, in the semi-finals, overwhelmed her with her baseline aggression. The Belgian, who vanquished both Serena and her sister, Venus, en route to the WTA Championships title in November, has lost only three games in the first two round here and has won 21 of her last 22 matches.

"Everything went well out there today," Clijsters said. "She made a lot of unforced errors, but I felt good, I served well, I did what I had to do." Asked about the perception that she is the main obstacle to another all-Williams grand slam final, she said: "It doesn't really bother me. Whenever I play them, I know I have to play my best game in order to be capable of beating them."

Serena had an easy passage into the third round, dismissing Els Callens of Belgium 6-4, 6-0. The world No 1, holder of the US Open, French Open and Wimbledon titles, is still hoping to complete the set at Melbourne Park. "I have five more matches to go. It's going to be really tough," she said. One reporter asked her if she felt "a little tense" "A little dense?" she asked. "Tense" came the reply. Yes, she did.

Less fortunate was Monica Seles, the No 6 seed, who lost 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 to Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic after spraining her ankle in the third game. Seles, the highest-ranked casualty of the tournament, played on after treatment and even won a set, but found it difficult to run around court.

It is the first time in eight visits that the American has failed to make it through to the second week at Melbourne Park. Seles, who was seeded to meet Serena in the quarter-finals, said she rolled her left ankle while attempting to change direction when she was wrong-footed by Koukalova.

Afterwards, she said, "I was a step slower and I couldn't change direction... I tried to tough it out, but I couldn't. I was in bad pain and she was just too good."

Also ousted yesterday was Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten, a three-times French Open champion who has never managed to pass the second round in Melbourne. Yesterday the jinx continued when he was defeated 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 by Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, playing in only his third grand slam.

The closely fought match could have gone either way. "It wasn't a match I played bad," Kuerten, a former world No 1, said. "Just a couple of shots and the result could have been different."

Results from Melbourne

MEN'S SINGLES

Second round: D NALBANDIAN (Arg) bt J Crabb (Aus) 6-1 7-6 6-3; F Lopez (Sp) bt R Ginepri (US) 6-2 6-4 6-2; JBLAKE (US) bt J Acasuso (Arg) 6-1 6-4 6-4; R SCHUETTLER (Ger) bt R Krajicek (Neth) 6-3 7-5 6-4; Y El Aynaoui (Mor) bt V Kutsenko (Uzb) 6-2 6-1 6-4; A Vinciguerra (Swe) bt J Knowle (Aut) 6-2 0-1 ret; X MALISSE (Bel) bt A Dupuis (Fr) 6-3 5-7 7-6 7-5; A Martin (Sp) bt F GONZALEZ (Chile) 6-7 6-3 6-1 7-6 ; M SAFIN (Rus) bt A Montanes (Sp) 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-1; R Stepanek (Cz Rep) bt G KUERTEN (Br) 5-7 6-3 7-5 4-6 6-3; R Federer (Swit) bt L Burgsmuller (Ger) 6-3 6-0 6-3; A RODDICK (US) bt A Voinea (Rom) 6-2 6-2 6-2; F Vicente (Sp) bt J I CHELA (Arg) 6-3 6-3 2-6 6-3; J NOVAK (Cz Rep) bt O Rochus (Bel) 7-6 7-6 4-6 4-6 6-3; M YOUZHNY (Rus) bt J Sirianni (Aus) 6-2 6-3 6-3; L HEWITT (Aus) bt T Larkham (Aus) 6-1 6-0 6-1.

WOMEN'S SINGLES

Second round: E BOVINA (Rus) bt R Grande (It) 6-1 6-2; M SHAUGHNESSY (US) bt L Cervanova (Slovak) 6-1 6-1; B Schwartz (Aut) bt A Serra-Zanetti (It) 6-1 6-2; N DECHY (Fr) bt D Bedanova (Cz Rep) 6-3 6-3; C FERNANDEZ (Arg) bt M Serna (Sp) 6-3 6-4; S WILLIAMS (US) bt E Callens (Bel) 6-4 6-0; T Poutchek (Bela) bt C Torrens-Valero (Sp) 2-6 6-4 6-4; A PISTOLESI (Isr) bt M Matevzic (Sloven) 5-1 ret; T TANASUGARN (Thai) bt A Jidkova (Rus) 6-2 3-6 6-3; E DANIILIDOU (Gr) bt A Frazier (US) 6-1 6-2; K CLIJSTERS (Bel) bt P Mandula (Hun) 6-0 6-0; M MALEEVA (Bul) bt Y-J Cho (S Kor) 2-6 6-4 6-1; C RUBIN (US) bt M Pierce (Fr) 0-6 6-4 6-2; A COETZER (SA) bt J Jankovic (Yug) 6-2 4-6 6-4; A MYSKINA (Rus) bt E Gagliardi (Swit) 5-7 6-2 6-0; K Koukalova (Cz Rep) bt M SELES (US) 6-7 (6-8) 7-5 6-3.

MEN'S DOUBLES

First round: M Mirnyi & V Voltchkov (Bela) bt G Gaudio & M Puerta (Arg) 6-2 6-3; L Bourgeois & S Draper (Aus) bt DFerrer (Sp) & F Squillari (Arg) 4-6 7-5 7-6; D JOHNSON & J PALMER (US) bt M Fish (US) & M Hill (Aus) 6-2 6-4; G ETLIS & M RODRIGUEZ (Arg) bt J Landsberg (Swe) & J Nieminen (Fin) 6-4 6-4; J Blake (US) & M Merklein (Bah) bt G Canas (Arg) & F Clavet (Sp) 6-3 6-4; N Lapentti (Ecu) & T Woodbridge (Aus) bt J-ML GAMBILL & G OLIVER (US) 4-6 6-4 6-4; S Aspelin (Swe) & J-L De Jager (SA) bt J Crabb & P Luczak (Aus) 6-2 6-4; E Ferreira (SA) & B MacPhie (US) bt A Lopez Moron & C Moya (Sp) 6-2 7-5; M LLODRA & F SANTORO (Fr) bt S Humphries (US) & S Huss (Aus) 6-3 6-4; A Corretja & A Costa (Sp) bt J Acasuso & A Schneiter (Arg) 7-5 6-3; S Schalken & J Van Lottum (Neth) bt L Arnold & D Nalbandian (Arg) 3-6 6-4 6-2; O Fukarek & P Luxa (Cz Rep) bt A Martin & David Sanchez (Sp) 6-3 6-4; Y KAFELNIKOV (Rus) & R STEPANEK (Cz Rep) bt C Brandi (It) & I Ljubicic (Croa) 6-1 7-6 ; M DAMM & C SUK (Cz Rep) bt L Burgsmuller (Ger) & H-T Lee (S Kor) 6-0 7-6 ; X Malisse (Bel) & S Sargsian (Arm) bt G Coria & M Zabaleta (Arg) 6-2 6-3.

WOMEN'S DOUBLES

First round: R McQuillan (Aus) & M Tu (US) bt T KRIZAN & K SREBOTNIK (Sloven) 6-2 6-3; M E Salerni (Arg) & A Svensson (Swe) bt M Marrero (Sp) & R Neffa-De Los Rios (Par) 6-3 6-2; E DEMENTIEVA (Rus) & J HUSAROVA (Slovak) bt T Perebiynis & S Talaja (Croa) 6-4 4-6 6-3; E Tatarkova (Ukr) & R Voracova (Cz Rep) bt S Stone & S Stosur (Aus) 7-6 6-3; A Canepa (It) & M Sequera (Ven) bt A Serra-Zanetti & F Pennetta (It) 6-3 1-6 6-3; V RUANO PASCUAL (Sp) & P SUAREZ (Arg) bt L Krasnoroutskaya & T Panova (Rus) 7-5 6-4; C MARTINEZ (Sp) & N PETROVA (Rus) bt A Harkleroad (US) & P Tarabini (Arg) 6-4 3-6 7-6; E BOVINA (Rus) & J HENIN-HARDENNE (Bel) bt K Liggan (Irl) & A Widjaja (India) 6-4 6-0; S Asagoe & N Miyagi (Japan) bt E Dominikovic & B Stewart (Aus) 6-1 6-3; L DAVENPORT & L RAYMOND (US) bt A Grahame & C Watson (Aus) 6-1 6-1; N Dechy & E Loit (Fr) bt A Glass & M Weingartner (Ger) 6-3 6-1; D HANTUCHOVA (Slovak) & M SHAUGHNESSY (US) bt L McShea (Aus) & I Selyutina (Kaz) 7-6 6-1; M NAVRATILOVA (US) & S KUZNETSOVA (Rus) bt M Casanova (Swit) & N Pratt (Aus) 5-7 6-1 6-3; K CLIJSTERS (Bel) & A SUGIYAMA (Japan) bt T Musgrave (Aus) & T Tanasugarn (Thai) 6-3 7-5; S WILLIAMS (US) & V WILLIAMS (US) bt R Grande (It) & P Schnyder (Swit) 6-3 6-1; A KOURNIKOVA (Rus) & C RUBIN (US) bt A Stevenson (US) & V Webb (Can) 0-6 6-0 6-2.

Seeds in CAPITALS