Serena Williams continued her impressive return on Thursday with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Bethanie Mattek that put her into the quarter-finals of the WTA Cincinnati Open.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion, playing for the first time since the Australian Open due to a nagging left knee injury, cruised for the second straight match to set up a clash with US veteran Amy Frazier.
"I'm just taking it one match at a time," Williams said.
"I didn't expect super-spectacular results, but I didn't expect bad results, either. I'm not looking too far ahead -- one match, one match, one match," she said.
On Tuesday, Williams rolled past second-seeded Russian Anastasia Myskina, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of this US$175,000 hardcourt tournament.
Williams said she didn't play as well as she had against Myskina, but she was pleased to feel fit on the court if not at her best.
After dropping her serve to fall behind early, Williams won 11 of the next 13 games.
"I feel fine," said Williams, whose ranking has plummeted to 139 in the world. "I'm doing a lot of work off the court, and I hope it pays off. I feel like I can be not just faster, but quicker."
In the same half of the draw, Russian Vera Zvonareva posted her second straight blowout victory, a 6-0, 6-2 thrashing of Uzbekistan's Varvara Lepchenko.
Zvonareva had upset seventh-seeded Tatiana Golovin of France in the first round.
Zvonareva next will face fifth-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic, who remained undefeated in two career meetings with Maria Elena Camerin of Italy thanks to a 6-4, 6-4 victory
In the lone match from the upper half of the draw, sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France survived a second-set lapse to beat Russian qualifier Vasilisa Bardina 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
Andy Roddick advanced to the quarter-finals with a two-set victory over unseeded Jeff Morrison on Thursday and will have a chance for some revenge with his next match.
Second-seeded Roddick outlasted fellow American Morrison 7-6 (4), 7-5 then quickly turned his attention to his next foe Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, who shocked Roddick in the first round of last year's US Open.
Top-seeded James Blake and defending champion Robby Ginepri also won.
Blake defeated Wesley Whitehouse of South Africa 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4. Fourth-seeded Ginepri hit 11 aces in beating 15th-seeded Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-1.
Muller, seeded 12th, eliminated Denmark's Kenneth Carlsen 6-1, 6-2 in just 52 minutes.
Roddick said he hoped to redeem himself against Muller as he seeks to capture the RCA title again following wins in 2003 and 2004.
"He [Muller] played well against me in the Open last year. I feel I didn't play well at all," Roddick said. "I'm excited. I'm looking forward to the matchup."
Blake aced Whitehouse 19 times, and won 37 of 43 first-serve points. And he held on, watching a 5-1 lead in the third set shrink to 5-4 before prevailing.
"He changed his game a little," Blake said of Whitehouse, a qualifier. "He was going for broke, trying to get to everything. Then he was just trying to keep the ball in. That's when I adjusted, and I was able to win some points."
Blake will play 10th-seeded Nicolas Mahut of France. Mahut ousted fifth-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany 6-4, 7-5. Mahut had 12 aces against a frustrated Haas, who had five double faults and numerous thrown rackets.
Ginepri advanced to the quarter-finals for the first time in 15 matches this season, and third time in the last four years in Indianapolis. As he did last year, he'll meet Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand.
Paradorn saved three match points while serving at 5-6 in the final set to beat 11th-seeded Paul Goldstein of the US 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (3).
"I also saved three match points when I last played Paul in Washington last year. But my mind didn't flash back to Washington when I was down match point today," Paradorn wrote on his blog. "I didn't expect to get out of this one."
Third-seeded Fernando Gonzalez conceded only four points on his first serve in downing 14th-seeded Vince Spadea 6-4, 7-6 (7).
No. 9-seeded Xavier Malisse of Belgium withstood 12 aces from No. 7 Dmitry Tursunov to put out the Russian 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-3 for his first quarter-final berth since March.
Tomas Berdych led the remaining quartet of seeded players into the quarter-finals of the Mercedes Cup on Thursday.
A day after eight seeded players were knocked out of the US$740,000 clay-court tournament, second-seeded Berdych beat Argentine qualifier Diego Junqueira, 6-1, 6-4.
No. 3-seeded David Ferrer, No. 5 Jose Acasuso and No. 13 Luis Horna also progressed.
Berdych jumped ahead 4-0 in the second set, Junqueira took the next game, then Berdych asked the tournament doctor to look at his shoulder. Berdych played on and led 5-1 but was clearly bothered by the shoulder and dropped the next three games.
Junqueira had two break points to even the set at 5-5, but Berdych converted his first match point with a forehand volley.
In the quarters, the Czech will play Ecuador qualifier Nicolas Lapentti, who beat Argentine qualifier Diego Hartfield 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Ferrer used his strong baseline game to defeat Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4 for the Spaniard's fifth quarter-finals of the year.
There he'll play Germany's Florian Mayer, who defeated Argentine qualifier Juan Martin Del Potro 6-1, 6-0, in 48 minutes.
Acasuso, another Argentine, fought off a spirited effort by Germany's Simon Greul 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-4, and will take on Oliver Marach, who beat fellow Austrian Stefan Koubek 6-4, 6-4
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