Tennis:Serena Williams was given her first real test of the 2009 US Open today but came through it to book her place in the last 16.
The defending champion saw off Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-3 7-5 to set up a meeting with Daniela Hantuchova.
The meeting with Martinez Sanchez had been billed as something of a grudge match for Williams, who had accused the Spaniard of "cheating" during their French Open encounter earlier in the season.
She started as if she was out to prove a point, racing into a 3-0 lead.
Martinez Sanchez soon raised her game but that early break of serve allowed the second seed to take the opening set.
However, the second set proved much tougher as Martinez Sanchez troubled Williams with her serve-and-volley tactics.
The left-hander moved into a 3-1 lead but Williams pegged her back and gained the decisive break of serve in an epic 11th game before serving out for a place in round four.
The in-form Flavia Pennetta was the first winner on day five.
The 27-year-old, who won the recent warm-up tournament in Los Angeles, part of 15-match winning streak, sauntered to a 6-1 6-1 victory over Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak in less than an hour.
In the men's draw, seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga impressed again as he moved into round three.
The Frenchman was a comfortable winner in the first round and he looked in good nick once more as he eased to a 7-5 6-3 6-4 victory over Finn Jarkko Nieminen.
Tsonga, last year's Australian Open runner-up, broke once in each set and saved the only break point he faced as he won in an hour and 49 minutes.
The limited Nieminen fought well in the first set but cracked serving to stay in it at 5-6.
From that stage you always sensed Tsonga would emerge victorious and so it proved.
Nieminen could not handle the Frenchman's big serve - he could win just four points on his first delivery in the match - and was powerless to prevent Tsonga setting up a last-32 meeting with compatriot Julien Benneteau.
Benneteau caused a minor shock by winning a see-saw encounter with 30th seed Viktor Troicki, 6-1 3-6 6-1 6-0.
Juan Martin Del Potro was also a straight-sets winner as he stayed on course for a last-eight meeting with Andy Murray.
The Argentine beat Jurgen Melzer 7-6 (8/6) 6-3 6-3 on the Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Things weren't so easy for Marin Cilic and Juan Carlos Ferrero, who both had to come from two sets down to keep their hopes alive.
Sixteenth seed Cilic found himself in big trouble after losing the first two sets to American wild card Jesse Levine.
But in a match featuring no less than 14 breaks of serve, he stormed back as Levine wilted to win 4-6 2-6 6-0 6-3 6-0.
It was the first time in his career that Cilic had come back from two sets down to win.
Former world number one Ferrero achieved the feat for the third time as he battled back to beat Philipp Petzschner 1-6 3-6 6-4 6-2 6-4.
The Spaniard, a finalist at Flushing Meadows back in 2003, levelled the match at two sets apiece but still looked set to slip to defeat when he fell 1-4 down in the decider.
Yet he found another wind to reel off the last five games and move into round three.