Baghdatis crashes, Federer picks form

Roddick and Williams set up showdowns with tough opponents.

Sixth-seeded Roddick beat Frenchman Marc Gicquel, 6-3, 7-6 4, 6-4 and next faces 2005 Australian Open champion Marat Safin, who is seeded 26th while rebounding from a knee injury that kept him from defending his title last year.

8220;When I saw the draw, I think I expected to play Marat,8221; Roddick said. 8220;I think we8217;re both maybe better than a third-round matchup against each other. But that8217;s the way it shakes out.8221;

Safin was shaky in going the distance for the second consecutive match, benefitting from a rain break to rally from a set down to oust Dudi Sela of Israel 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 7-6 4, 6-0 in a match with 20 service breaks.

Play was halted with Safin serving at 5-6, 30-30 in the fourth set. After the roof was closed, Safin came out sharp, serving an ace on the first point and running through the tiebreaker against Sela, who lived down to his No. 202 ranking the rest of the way.

Baghdatis, seeded 11th, couldn8217;t hope for such intervention, as the roof stayed closed for his match against the 20-year-old Monfils, who was plagued last year by a stress fracture in his left foot and sprains to his right.

Monfils took the first two sets, mixing whiplike groundstrokes with deft, well-disguised drops shots, and windmilling his arms after key points to get the crowd wound up.

Then the left foot started bothering him again, and he sought treatment after dropping the third set. But Monfils ran off the last six games.

Defending woman8217;s champion Mauresmo, seeded second, beat Olga Poutchkova 6-2, 6-2 and next faces unseeded Eva Birnerova.

Williams, a two-time champion here but unseeded after dealing with a knee injury, will play No. 5 Nadia Petrova. She relished the prospect.

On a much cooler day after searing heat postponed several matches Tuesday, top-ranked Federer generated his own heat, ripping six forehand winners in the first three games while dominating Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

Federer served for the match just as the sun broke through the clouds briefly. On the final point, he jumped high for an overhead.

Bjorkman got it back, only to have Federer whack another overhead, this time out of reach.

Federer next meets US Open semi-finalist Mikhail Youzhny after the 25th-seeded Russian beat Lu Yen-hsen of Taiwan 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.

No. 14-seeded Novak Djokovic, who beat Feliciano Lopez in straight sets.

Roddick and Gicquel engaged in long rallies. The Frenchman won one 34-shot exchange, but it wasn8217;t enough.

After fending off three break points in the first set, Roddick never faced another. He steadily cranked up his serve, smacking an ace to finish off the second-set tiebreaker. He finished with 18.

Williams, who won the last of her seven Grand Slam titles here in 2005, rallied from 1-4 in the tiebreaker in her 7-6 4, 6-2 win over Luxembourg8217;s Anne Kremer.

Thailand8217;s Danai Udomchoke upset No. 24 Juan Carlos Ferrero to oust the former world No. 1. A former Australian Open champion also tumbled, with 2002 winner Thomas Johansson losing to No. 16 David Ferrer.

Veteran Australian Wayne Arthurs beat American qualifier Zach Fleishman, who had his hair dyed in red, white and blue stripes.

Other men8217;s winners included No. 7 Tommy Robredo, No. 9 Mario Ancic, No. 18 Richard Gasquet, No. 20 Radek Stepanek and No. 22 Dominik Hrbaty.

Among those advancing on the women8217;s side were former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the No. 3 seed, along with Petrova, No. 7 Elena Dementieva, No. 8 Patty Schnyder, No. 9 Dinara Safina, No. 10 Nicole Vaidisova, No. 11 Jelena Jankovic, No. 15 Daniela Hantuchova.

Three seeded women lost: Lucie Safarova beat No. 14 Francesca Schiavone, Victoria Azarenko downed No. 18 Marion Bartoli and Anastasiya Yakimova ousted No. 23 Ai Sugiyama.