NEW YORK -- Jennifer Capriati took center court after Marat Safin's marathon 3-hour, 27 minute match with Ivan Ljubicic and made much faster work of Eve Dominikovic, winning 6-2, 6-0 in just 51 minutes at the U.S. Open on Thursday.

Capriati, winner of the Australian and French opens and a semifinalist at Wimbledon, pushed her Grand Slam record for the season to 21-1. She did a textbook job on Dominikovic, winning 13 of 16 first-serve points and dominating with a 100-mph serve from start to finish.

"I haven't won a tournament since the French Open," Capriati said. "I'm eager. It's hard not to get fired up, especially here.

Defending champion Venus Williams beat Meilen Tu 6-2, 6-2 in the night match, while Kim Clijsters continued building her reputation as a morning person with a 6-3, 6-2 victory against Allison Bradshaw.

Opening the day's play for the second straight time, the French Open finalist shook off Bradshaw quickly to advance to the third round of America's Grand Slam.

Playing in half-empty Louis Armstrong Stadium -- the tennis crowd doesn't usually arrive in full force this early -- Clijsters kept Bradshaw on the run and completed the victory in 45 minutes.

Bradshaw broke Clijsters in both sets but could not capitalize on the advantage. Each time, Clijsters broke right back to escape any real trouble.

With boyfriend Lleyton Hewitt watching from courtside, Clijsters sprayed a variety of shots all over the court, and took advantage of 28 unforced errors and five double faults by the 20-year-old American to grab control of the match.

Playing with her right thigh still tightly wrapped following an injury that forced her to withdraw from last week's Open warm-up in New Haven, Clijsters did not seem troubled. Her serves reached 100 mph and she won 21 of 28 first-serve points.

Also Thursday, No. 19 Barbara Schett downed Selima Sfar 6-4, 7-6 (5); and Alicia Molik defeated No. 15 Magdalena Maleeva 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Toiling in relative obscurity on one of the far outer courts at the National Tennis Center, Molik equalled her best career Grand Slam showing by reaching the third round. She previously made it to the Australian Open third round last year.

Maleeva, 26, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist in 1992, also went out at the same stage last year.

Molik will get a shot to claim another seeded scalp in the next round when she meets 19th seed Barbara Schett of Austria.