Tennis: Top seed Roger Federer breezed through to the fourth round of the French Open after an easy straight-sets victory over Potito Starace.
His Italian opponent was never in the first set and was blown away 2-6 on the Philippe Chatrier court following two breaks of serve.
The Swiss ace was pushed much harder by Starace in the second, but with his own serve never really put under any threat, he was able to grind it out 6-3 and move into a commanding position.
And it then got much easier again for Federer, who looked in full control across all areas of the clay, as he notched up a comfortable third set 6-0 to progress through to the next round.
Federer will now face Mikhail Youzhny after he beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in an exciting encounter.
The first two sets were both shared after tie-breaks in each but from then on the 13th-seeded Russian found an extra gear as he went on to dominate the match.
With his Spanish opponent fading fast, Youzhny quickly wrapped up the victory 6-7 7-6 6-2 6-2.
Nikolay Davydenko also stormed into the fourth round after making short work of crowd favourite Michael Llodra.
The Russian is seen as one of the main challengers to Rafael Nadal and Federer for this year's Roland Garros crown and filled his supporters with move confidence after this routine 6-4 6-2 6-4 triumph on the Suzzane Lenglen court.
Elsewhere, in-form Juan Monaco made it into the fourth round with a 6-4 6-2 6-4 win over Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Unseeded Monaco, of Argentina, is being viewed as a dangerous floater in the draw as a result of his tournament wins on clay in Buenos Aires and Poertschach already this year.
Two second-round matches were completed early today, with Russia's Igor Andreev - the conqueror of third-seed Andy Roddick in the first round - and Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu progressing.
In the women's competition Jelena Jankovic once again proved she can't be ruled out of going all the way after overcoming Venus Williams 6-4 4-6 6-1 in the third round.
The Serbian, who has never previously ventured beyond the third round at Roland Garros before, looked solid in the first set and just needed one break of serve to move into a 1-0 advantage.
Williams did level the match as she pushed the fourth seed hard, but Jankovic notched up six straight games in the final set to reach the fourth round.
Na Li is out after being defeated in straight sets by Sybille Bammer.
The 16th seed from China simply made too many mistakes against her Austrian counterpart, who didn't have to work too hard to wrap up a 6-4 6-3 triumph.
Nicole Vaidisova edged past gutsy Aussie Samantha Stosur, also in straight sets.
In a tightly-fought opening set littered with unforced errors from both women, the sixth-seeded Czech, who lost her serve on one occasion, managed to sneak it 6-4 after two breaks of serve.
Stosur's inability to break Vaidisova in the third set proved costly as the youngster eventually clinched it 6-4 as she looks to emulate last year's success of reaching the semi-finals.
Elsewhere in the third round, 19th seed Tathiana Garbin of Italy thrashed Frenchwoman Stephanie Cohen-Aloro 6-3 6-0.
In a second-round match Daniela Hantuchova made life difficult against Olga Poutchkova but the 12th seed progressed with a 7-6 6-3 victory.
The popular Slovakian, who hasn't reached a Grand Slam quarter-final for more than four years, was broken three times in the opening set but showed enough character to respond and take it on a tie-break.
Poutchkova continued to battle bravely but the 24-year-old kept plugging away and two breaks saw her push on to close out the final set. PA