Birthday boy kicks off American party

World number one Kim Clijsters inched towards her maiden Grand Slam crown earlier on Friday but it was the end of the road for emotionally-fragile ninth seed Daniela Hantuchova, who lost 6-2, 6-4 in the third round to Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn.

Belgian Clijsters, seeded one at a slam for the first time, swept aside Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-2 to reach the fourth round. Next up for Clijsters will be 17th seed Shaughnessy, who overcame Russian 13th seed Vera Zvonareva 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Roddick probably did not plan to spend the first moments of his birthday sweating it out on a muggy centre court, but his spirited play against the hard-serving Ljubicic underlined his determination to gift himself his first career Grand Slam.

Easy for Hewitt, Pierce

Lleyton Hewitt was given an easy passage into the last 16 owhen his Czech opponent Radek Stepanek retired injured while trailing 6-1 3-0 on Saturday. Mary Pierce continued to build confidence, form and momentum – the muscular Frenchwoman powered into the fourth round with a 6-4 6-1 win over Shinobu Asagoe.