Serena,Venus move into fourth round

Reigning Australian Open champion Serena Williams defeated China’s Peng Shuai 7-5 6-2 on Sunday while US fifth seed Venus Williams,the reigning Wimbledon champion,beat Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-5 6-3.

The sisters could meet in a semi-final at this nine million-dollar event,which saw its greatest upset when Australia’s 42nd-ranked Samantha Stosur stunned Russian second seed Safina 6-1 6-4. “I’m really happy,” Stosur said,“I played really well. I executed exactly what I wanted to do.”

Safina could have become the women’s world number one by winning the title. “It’s very disappointing. That’s what I’m playing for,” Safina said. “I want to be there. Suddenly I go to court and I don’t even fight for it. Champions,they don’t do this. It’s a good punishment for me.”

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Federer advanced by beating German 28th seed Nicolas Kiefer 6-4 6-1 to book a fourth-round match against American Taylor Dent,who beat Spanish 15th seed Tommy Robredo 7-5 6-3.

Serbia’s seventh seed Ana Ivanovic,a finalist one week ago at Indian Wells,also was ousted,falling to Hungary’s Agnes Szavay 6-4 4-6 6-1.

Andy Roddick reached the fourth round on Sunday after overcoming two set points in the tiebreaker to beat Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 7-6 (9) 6-2.