MELBOURNE, Australia -- For Venus Williams, Serena Williams
and Martina Hingis, the goal Saturday at the Australian Open was
twofold: get into the fourth round, and get out of the heat.
The three Grand Slam champions played at the same time on
adjacent courts in sweltering conditions, and each won quickly.
|  | | Mary Pierce is the fourth seeded player to fall from the women's draw at the Australian Open. |
Serena Williams, seeded sixth, beat Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-1,
6-4. Eighteen minutes later, the top-seeded Hingis completed a 7-5,
6-1, victory over wild card Virginie Razzano. And 14 minutes after
that, third-seeded Venus Williams finished off Denisa Chladkova
6-4, 6-1.
"It was very hot," Venus Williams said. "I didn't want to
make my stay too long. I was pretty fortunate."
With a summer heat wave in its second day, temperatures were in
the 90s and soared to 125 on the sunbaked hardcourts. The sizzling
court surface prompted chair umpire Jane Harvey to allow a brief
interruption in the middle of a game during the Hingis-Razzano
match.
"Ladies and gentlemen, there'll be a short break while Miss
Razzano changes her shoes," Harvey announced. Hingis decided to
change shoes too.
No. 7 Mary Pierce wilted in the weather, losing to Paola Suarez
6-3, 6-2. No. 10 Amanda Coetzer beat Marlene Weingartner 6-2, 6-4.
No. 13 Amelie Mauresmo, the 1999 runner-up, beat former French Open
champion Iva Majoli 6-4, 6-2.
In the fourth round, Serena will play 17-year-old Czech Daja
Bedanova, who upset Olympic silver medalist Elena Dementieva 2-6,
7-6 (5), 6-3. Dementieva, seeded No. 9, survived five set points
and forced a tiebreaker in the second set, but then let a 4-2 lead
slip away. Bedanova broke serve in the final set's eighth game and
finished with two aces.
Pierce, who last year added
the French Open crown to her 1995 Australian Open title, looked out of sorts
throughout the entire match.
The 26-year-old, who celebrated her birthday at the start
of the tournament, only returned to tennis this month after
having pulled out of the U.S. Open fourth round last August
with tendinitis in her shoulder.
|  | | Amelie Mauresmo from France, returns the ball during her 6-4, 6-2, victory over Iva Majoli of Croatia on Saturday. |
Suarez sealed victory when Pierce clubbed the ball long on
her second match point to reach the fourth round of a grand slam
for the first time in her career. Suarez will meet No. 10 Amanda Coetzer.
Pierce joins Conchita Martinez, Chanda Rubin and Amy
Frazier as the seeded casualties from the first week.
Serena Williams won in just 58 minutes and complained more about
the wind than the heat.
"I'm pretty disappointed with the way I played," she said.
"The wind was kind of chasing the ball a little. I didn't do the
things I wanted to do."
Williams lost her serve three times but was the much more
aggressive player, belting 16 winners to four for Tanasugarn.
"Especially in the early rounds, you should most likely win
very quick," Williams said. She's one round from a possible
quarterfinal matchup against Hingis.
Hingis fell behind 4-2 but rallied to take the opening set in 39
minutes -- about the length of her first two matches. She then
pulled away, with half her points coming on errors by the
17-year-old Razzano.
Venus Williams won in just 51 minutes despite an erratic effort.
She reached 118 mph with her serve, smacked eight aces and hit 25
winners, but she also had 24 unforced errors.
Williams faces her first seeded opponent in the next round when
she plays Mauresmo.
"It's somewhat like two tournaments," Williams said. "The
first week is possibly more dangerous. You're playing the
lower-ranked players and have to be on your guard."
Mauresmo was 0-for-5 on break-point opportunities before Majoli
dumped a backhand into the net to lose the first set. Mauresmo
broke again for a 2-0 lead in the second set, never lost serve and
closed out the win in 1 hour, 16 minutes. The Frenchwoman has yet
to drop a set in three rounds.
Mauresmo, who was unseeded when she lost the 1999 final to
Hingis, has struggled with a lower back injury since last spring.
She was ranked sixth a year ago but has slipped to 20th.
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Seles, Davenport, charge forward Down Under
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Venus Williams makes it look easy in her straight-set victory over Denisa Chladkova.
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