NEW YORK -- Lindsay Davenport has played enough close matches this summer to enjoy the quick ones she's had so far at the U.S. Open.
She breezed into the fourth round, ailing foot and all, by defeating Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-0, 6-2 in 42 minutes on Friday.
Davenport, seeded third and the 1998 Open winner, is the only former champion in the women's field.
She has spent less than three hours on the court in her first three matches and has dropped just nine games.
"I think this week is exactly what I needed," Davenport said. "Just to give myself some confidence and know that I played well and that my foot's feeling good."
American James Blake pulled off a suspenseful second-round win over Sargis Sargsian 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6) before a raucous crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Blake jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the tiebreaker against his former practice partner, but Sargsian rallied to tie the score at 6. Sargsian then hit a backhand volley into the net to make it 7-6, throwing his racket to the ground in frustration afterward and then walking to the sideline to replace it. Sargsian hit a forehand long on the next point to end it.
Blake gave a thumbs-up sign to the near capacity crowd and also waved. He has equaled his best U.S. Open performance -- Blake also reached the third round last year, losing to Lleyton Hewitt.
"This is another match since Wimbledon where I feel I had a great match mentally," said Blake, who broke back after falling behind 5-4 in the fourth set. "There's going to be ups and downs in my matches. There were today and I tried to weather all of them."
"I think if I would have won the fourth set I would have had a good chance in the fifth," Sargsian said. "My game was feeling good."
World No. 1 Kim Clijsters easily advanced to the fourth round with a 6-3, 6-2 win over 27th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova that lasted 1 hour, 2 minutes. Clijsters hit more unforced errors than winners -- 23-18.
In other men's action, 20th-seeded Mark Philippoussis, the 1998 runner-up, blasted serves of more than 130 mph on the way to a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 victory against Anthony Dupuis.
No. 13 David Nalbandian had to play for 3 hours, 39 minutes to reach the third round. He outlasted Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (3). The final set lasted 56 minutes.
In women's play, fifth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo defeated Maria Kirilenko 6-4, 6-2.
Davenport seems to have come so far physically, compared to a week ago when she retired in the championship match of the Pilot Pen against Jennifer Capriati on Saturday. She canceled a practice at the National Tennis Center on Sunday to rest her injured left foot, leaving some to wonder whether she, too, would withdraw.
The field already had lost star Americans Serena and Venus Williams with injuries.
Davenport has a nerve problem in the foot that will require surgery this fall, but she said it has barely bothered her this tournament. She hit 25 winners to nine for the 93rd-ranked Czink.
Now, Davenport will play 19th-seeded Nadia Petrova in the round of 16. Petrova dominated No. 14 Amanda Coetzer 6-0, 6-1 Friday, beating the tiny South African for the second time in four chances and for the second in a row after winning when they met in San Diego last month.
Others scheduled to play Friday were Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, world No. 1 Kim Clijsters and fourth-seeded Andy Roddick.
Andre Agassi ran into someone in the second round who could match him sizzling stroke for sizzling stroke, a no-name who picked Thursday night to perform at the top of his game.
It lasted for a set.
As Agassi, ranked No. 1 and the oldest top-seeded man in the Open era, wore down Andreas Vinciguerra, beating the hard-hitting Swede 7-6 (1), 6-1, 6-4.
"We'd never played each other before and it takes awhile to settle down," Agassi said. "Once I settled down, I started hitting my shots a lot cleaner and felt good about it."
The 33-year-old Agassi had to battle through seven deuces to break Vinciguerra in the seventh game of the third set, and both players received a standing ovation when they changed over in a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Yet the chants of "Andre! Andre!" far outnumbered those for "Andreas! Andreas!" on this night.
It was the first meeting between Agassi and the 22-year-old lefty, who is ranked 92nd and has just one singles title. Vinciguerra didn't play any hard-court tuneup events leading to the Open.
Agassi practiced with a left-hander Wednesday to prepare for Vinciguerra.
Capriati, whose win at the Pilot Pen ended a 11/2-year drought without a title, overpowered Martina Sucha 6-1, 6-1 to reach the third round. The only games Capriati lost were on her own serve, when she helped out her opponent by double-faulting five times.
Martina Navratilova, 46, received quite the welcome before teaming with Svetlana Kuznetsova for a straight-set win in first-round women's doubles. When they entered the court, Navratilova received a standing ovation from the near capacity crowd. She smiled, waved, then bowed.
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