MELBOURNE (AFP) - Dinara Safina and her brother Marat Safin showed glimpses of their best form as they marched into the Australian Open third round along with Serbian pin-up Ana Ivanovic.
Third seed Safina recovered from a slow start to dominate fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-0 while fifth seed Ivanovic overcame early nerves to crush Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-3, 6-2.
The two women, who could meet in the last eight, were joined in the next round by 10th seed Nadia Petrova, a quarter-finalist here in 2006, after she ended the comeback from injury of India's Sania Mirza.
Former champion Safin, in what could be his last Australian Open after indicating he was close to quitting the sport, downed Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.
It set up a mouthwatering potential third round clash with Roger Federer, who plays later Wednesday.
Spanish 11th seed David Ferrer was the first man through, thrashing Slovakian veteran Dominik Hrbaty 6-2, 6-2, 6-1.
t was an impressive recovery from Ferrer who endured a four-hour ordeal in his opening match in furnace-like conditions on Monday.
Safina has lost only once this year, to compatriot Elena Dementieva in the final of the Sydney International, and is in the tournament after a breakthrough 2008 in which she snared four titles plus Olympic silver.
"She played a very good match. She gave me a hard time," Safina admitted. "But when I lost the first set I raised my level and that's why I won quite easily after that.
"We don't know each other, I've never played her and I've never seen her play. That's maybe why I had to find out in the first set how to play her."
Next up for Safina is Estonian 25th seed Kaia Kanepi, who ended Austrian Patricia Mayr's hopes by advancing in straight sets.
Ivanovic made the final here last year where she lost to Maria Sharapova, but her late-season form in 2008 left plenty to be desired.
The 21-year-old though seems to be finding her groove in Melbourne, where she feels at home with family and friends living here. It helped her produce a convincing display against Brianti.
"I think I improved a lot since my first match and I'm very pleased with that," said the former world number one.
"But there are still some areas that I have to work on and improve on.
"As you progress through the tournament you come against tougher opponents, so you automatically raise your level. I think I still have to work a little bit on my serve."
With defending champion Novak Djokovic playing later Wednesday, Ferrer was the first man to get past the second round.
He said he was low on confidence after his draining clash with Gremelmayr but encountered little resistance from the 251st-ranked Hrbaty, who is continuing his recovery from major elbow surgery in late 2007.
World number one Rafael Nadal and Britain's Andy Murray are in action Thursday.
Among others progressing Wednesday was Japanese number one Ai Sugiyama, who bounced back after losing the opening set to topple France's Nathalie Dechy 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.
The veteran faces a likely third-round clash with world number one Jelena Jankovic.
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