The Kim Clijsters express rolled on relentlessly on day four of the Australian Open Thursday as second seed Vera Zvonareva survived a scare and former number one Jelena Jankovic crashed out. Tournament favourite Clijsters continued her impressive start to the year's first Grand Slam as she cleaned up Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-3, following her 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Dinara Safina in the first round.
However, Russia's Zvonareva was pushed to the limit by Serbian Bojana Jovanovski before recovering to reach the third round 1-6, 6-3, 6-1. But there was to be no reprieve for Jankovic, who became the tournament's biggest casualty when she was beaten by China's Peng Shuai 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
The seventh seed joined fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic on the sidelines after failing to deal with the consistency of her Chinese opponent, who now moves into an all-Asian clash against Japan's Ayumi Morita. Local hero and fifth seed Samantha Stosur cruised Russia's Vera Dushevina in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. But once again all eyes were in Clijsters, who blitz Suarez Navarro and then warned that she was fitter now than when she became world number one in 2003 aged just 20.
"(I was) not as fit as I am now. (In the past) I felt I needed to retrieve a little bit," Clijsters said. Clijsters, now 27 and a mother to two-year-old Jada, was never seriously threatened against the tricky Suarez Navarro, winning comfortably in 62 minutes. Zvonareva was forced into an almighty battle against Jovanovski, who came out with all guns blazing in the first set, blasting 11 clean winners, serving at 82 percent and forcing the world number two into a host of errors. There was nothing Zvonareva could do in the face of brilliant shot-making from the 19-year-old Serb, who broke her opponent three times in the first set.
Israel's Shahar Peer, the tournament's 10th seed, made short work of Sorana Cirstea of Romania, winning 6-3, 6-2, while 13th seeded Russian Nadia Petrova ended the hopes of Australian Alicia Molik 6-4, 6-1. Twelfth seed Agnieszka Radwanska from Poland also progressed, beating Croatia's Petra Martic 6-3, 6-4, and 16th-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was too good for German Kristina Barrois 6-2, 6-2. Three minor seeds were eliminated Thursday. Czech Iveta Benesova beat Russia's Maria Kirilenko (18) 6-3, 6-1, Simona Halep of Romanina ousted another Russian, Alisa Kleybanova (24) 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) and France's Alize Cornet dumped Spain's Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez (26) 7-5, 6-1.
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