Ana, Dinara roll on

Gisela Dulko of Argentina plays forehand against Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova in the French Open third round match at Roland Garros in Paris yesterday. Photo: AFP

Defending champion Ana Ivanovic and top seed Dinara Safina moved a step closer to a quarterfinal showdown at the French Open on Friday as both brushed aside third round opponents.
The Serb trumped Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-0, 6-2 while the Russian blasted her way past compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova with a near identical score of 6-2, 6-0.
In three matches played, Safina has dropped just four games and Ivanovic 14.
One more win and they will meet in the quarterfinals setting up a repeat of last year's final won by Ivanovic 6-4, 6-3 for her first Grand Slam title.
There was heartache, however, for another of the tournament favourites as Venus Williams lost 6-0, 6-4 to Agnes Szavay of Hungary to continue her run of flops at Roland Garros.
Ivanovic, wearing strapping on her troublesome right knee but showing no signs that the injury was hampering her, had too much power and all-round skill for Benesova as she set up a fourth round encounter with either ninth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus or Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
The 21-year-old Belgrade beauty, who reached the world No.1 spot after her win here last year but who has struggled for form and fitness since then, said she had played one of her best matches of the year.
"I feel fit and ready to handle any kind of opponent," she said.
"My game is coming back and I feel more comfortable. I really missed competition last month.
"These kind of matches help for the tough matches ahead in the second week."
The 23-year-old Safina once again blasted out of the blocks peppering her younger opponent with her powerful groundstrokes down both sides of the court.
The Russian, who is the sister of men's former world No.1 Marat Safin, is on a mission here to win a Grand Slam as the No.1 status she took on April 20 has been discredited in some quarters for her failure to have won one of the four major tournaments.
She also is keen to bury the memory of last year's final when she allowed nerves to get the better of her against Ivanovic.
Williams, who had needed to save a match point on Thursday against Lucie Safarova just to get into the third round, was outplayed 6-0, 6-4 by Szavay to go out at this stage of the competion for the third year in a row.
It was a dismal performance from the reigning Wimbledon champion who has clawed her way back up the world rankings in parallel with sister Serena.
Szavay wrapped up the first set in just 30 minutes yanking her opponent from side to side and showing better footwork at the net.
Williams did grab a glimmer of hope by breaking the Hungarian's serve to lead 4-3 in the second, but with the gusting wind playing havoc with her service throwup, she lost the next three games to end her campaign.
Szavay, a quarterfinalist at the 2007 US Open, will next take on Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia with a place in the quarterfinals the prize for the winner.
Cibulkova comfortably defeated Gisela Dulko of Argentina 6-4, 6-2.
Portuguese teen prodigy Michelle Larcher de Brito meanwhile saw her dream of becoming the youngest ever women's winner in Paris bite the dust.
At 16 years and four months the youngest player left in the women's draw, Larcher de Brito went down 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 to France's Aravane Rezai in a bad-tempered clash that saw the players trading barbs over the Portuguese player's ear-splitting on-court vocals.
Rezai is one of only two Frenchwomen left after the early defeats of Amelie Mauresmo, Marion Bartoli and Alize Cornet. She will be Safina's opponent in the fourth round
Fernando Verdasco edged closer to another potentially epic Grand Slam showdown with Rafael Nadal on Friday after taking the hard road to see off Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro.
Eighth seed Verdasco needed nine match points to defeat the 31st seed Almagro 6-2, 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (10/8) in their third round clash and will next face Russian 10th seed Nikolay Davydenko, a two-time semifinalist.
Serbian fourth seed Novak Djokovic reached the third round with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 win over Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Djokovic will face German 29th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber who put out Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2003 champion, for a place in the last 16.
Chilean 12th seed Fernando Gonzalez, twice a quarterfinalist and the junior champion in 1998, ended the hopes of French wildcard Josselin Ouanna, who put out Marat Safin in the previous round, with a 7-5, 6-3, 7-5 win.
Gonzalez will take on either French seventh seed Gilles Simon or 30th seeded Romanian Victor Hanescu for a place in the quarterfinals.
Davydenko, a semifinalist in 2005 and 2007, saw off Stanilas Wawrinka of Switzerland, another former junior champion, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Top seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal beat Australia's Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the French Open last 16 on Friday.
He will face either compatriot David Ferrer or Robin Soderling of Sweden for a place in the quarterfinals.