体坛英语新闻：Federer beats Davydenko to set up Tomic meeting

MELBOURNE, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Wimbledon champion Rofer Federer advanced to the third round at the Australian Open with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Russian Nikolay Davydenko here on Thursday.

The two 31-year-olds know each other well, on court at least. After turning pro just a year apart, they've since met on 19 occasions, with Federer besting the Russian scrambler in all but two of their matches.

Former world No. 3 Davydenko hasn't enjoyed a career as consistent as that of his opponent. He didn't win a single title in 2012, which was the first time in nine years that he has failed to capture some silverware.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion Federer had few problems with the quirky, 40th-ranked Russian, winning in one hour 59 minutes in a night match on Rod Laver Arena.

Federer soon had Davydenko under pressure, breaking the Russian's service in the sixth game, and he cruised to the opening set in 42 minutes.

He followed up with a service break in Davydenko's opening service game to take the second set in a similar time and broke him again in the first game of the final set to steam home.

Federer stretched his record over Davydenko to 18-2 with a dominant performance containing three service breaks from 13 break point opportunities.

Federer made more unforced errors in his latest match, 42 to his 35 winners, but he was always in command of the Russian, whose last win against the 31-year-old Swiss legend was three years ago at Doha.

Federer will now meet the only Australian felt in the draw. The four-time Australian Open champion will play 20-year-old Bernard Tomic on Saturday for a spot in the top 16.

Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm continued her winning trip at the age of 42, beating Shahar Peer of Israel 6-2, 7-5 in women's event second round.

Date-Krumm, who is 17 year elder than former world No.11 Peer, won Thursday's match in straight sets and advanced to the third round. An early break in the first set proved to be the perfect start for crowd favorite Date-Krumm. The diminutive Japanese chaser is a master at turning her opponent's pace on her.

She did this to perfection in the seventh game as she effected yet another break to comfortably take the opening set 6-2.

The second set was more of an arm wrestle as Date-Krumm and Peer traded breaks with alarming regularity. In all there were seven breaks of serve for the set as the sun beat down on the players.

Despite Peer getting the second set back on equal terms, Date-Krumm played a stunning crosscourt backhand winner,which was the final treat for the loyal crowd who braved the heat to watch the match on Court 6 and Date-Krumm didn't disappoint, closing out the match to keep her dream alive.

Date-Krumm took her first Australian Open victory since 1996 on Monday by upsetting No.12 seed Nadia Petrova. Today's victory made her the second-oldest women to reach the third round of a Grand Slam at 42 years, 111 days, just after Renee Richards, who was 45 years, 8 days old when she reached the third round of the U.S. Open in 1979.

In Thursday's other matches, US Open champion Andy Murray powered into the third round after the victory over Joao Sousa of Portugal while Serena Williams shook off an ankle injury to take a solid 6-2, 6-0 victory over Spainish Garbine Muguruza.