Chinese Li Na joined title contenders to cruise into the third round of Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne on Thursday.

The 25-year-old took 65 minutes to breeze past Spaniard L. Dominguez Lino 6-0, 6-2, while all title favorites Kim Clijsters, Martina Hingis and Maria Sharapova completed their comfortable wins to through.

"I think I played quite well today," said the Wimbledon quarter-finallist.

"It's my first time to play against her and I feel pretty good with it. I just played my own game as my coach told me before the match.

"She is not as aggressive as yesterday's Bovina, I think she didn't push much on me," said the No. 19 seed who beat the Russian veteran Elena Bovina 6-4, 6-3 to reach the second round on Wednesday.

Li said that despite the scoreline, her mind had wandered during her clash with the Spaniard.

After winning first set 6-0, Li suffered a scare of 2-0 down at the beginning of the second set before she got her rhythm back to seal it 6-2.

Li said she played a loose game following her first set win, which could have been awkward.

"Maybe it's too easy to win the first set, I lost my concentration on my second one. I think I'm lucky just slipping only one game before I regain focus," she said.

The Chinese woman will play Dinara Safina, who beat Youlia Fedossova 6-3, 6-2 in the second round, for a record fourth round berth in the Australian Open, and if she surges on, she has great chance to meet the three-time Australian champion Hingis.

Hingis advanced to the third round with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Russian Alla Kudryavtseva early.

Hingis, the 1997, 1998 and 1999 Australian Open champion, who made the quarterfinals in Melbourne last year in her comeback Grand Slam, eased through her second round match in an hour and eight minutes.

"I think it was good that I went ahead quickly and then I just didn't have as much pressure on my shoulders," Hingis said.

Hingis will play Aiko Nakamura for a spot in the fourth round.

Clijsters also eased into the third round. The fourth seed has continued her hot form this year as she overwhelmed Japan's Akiko Morigami to record a crushing 6-3, 6-0 victory.

After beating Open top seed Maria Sharapova in the final of an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong, Clijsters won the Sydney International last week.

So far Clijsters has lost just three games in her two matches to date and was happy with her game.

"Everything went pretty good. Just in the beginning of the match I had to get into it," Clijsters said.

"I think I wasn't moving quite as well as I did in the first match.

"But I think overall, looking at the statistics and looking at my opponent, I think I did everything pretty well and I did what I had to do," she said.

She now plays No.29 seed Alona Bondarenko, who beat France's Virginie Razzano 6-3, 6-4 in second round.

Sharapova eased to the third round of the Australian Open as the top seeded Russian beat compatriot Anastassia Rodionova in straight sets 6-0, 6-3.

The match was a sharp contrast against her first round clash where she went within two points of crashing out after struggling for almost three hours in baking heat.

Sharapova now faces Italian Tathiana Garbin, who defeated Czech Renata Voracova 6-1, 7-5 to reach the third round.

Source: Xinhua