MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Justine Henin ran her winning streak to 31 matches today, overcoming serving troubles to hold off 25th-seeded Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 6-4 in the third round of the Australian Open.

The top-ranked Belgian star will face Aravene Rezai or Hsieh Su-wei in the fourth round, and a quarterfinal against Maria Sharapova looms.

“I hate to look too far,” Henin said. “I just want to get ready, improve my game and be in my best shape. I know the draw, but I like to stay concentrated on myself.”

After retiring from the 2006 Australian final against Amelie Mauresmo because of a stomach illness, Henin skipped the event last year because she was going through a divorce.

She got only 48 percent of her first serves into play and was lucky it didn’t cost her more against Schiavone, who has a similar style.

Nikolay Davydenko, seeded fourth, advanced to the fourth round of the men’s draw, beating France’s Marc Gicquel 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.

Marcos Baghdatis downed 2005 champion Marat Safin 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 in a momentum-swinging match that started Thursday and stretched into Friday morning and completed the second round.

Safin was the last player to beat top-ranked Roger Federer in Melbourne, breaking up the Swiss star’s four Australian titles with a semifinal upset three years ago.

Baghdatis is one of three losing Australian Open finalists still in contention.

He will play 2005 runner-up Lleyton Hewitt next. Fernando Gonzalez, who lost last year’s championship match, beat South Korean Lee Hyung-taik 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

Video of Baghdatis, a Greek Cypriot, holding a flare and apparently yelling “Turks Out,” emerged in the Australian media on Friday, 10 months after it was posted on a video sharing Web site.

The 2006 runner-up did not apologize for the video in a statement released Friday in response to criticism from Melbourne’s Turkish-Cypriot community, but said he wanted to concentrate only on the tennis.

Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974.

The International Tennis Federation and Tennis Australia both said they would not be making any comment.

Federer has reached the finals of the last 10 Grand Slam tournaments and won eight of them, losing twice to Rafael Nadal at the French Open.

Nadal and Roddick are into the third round and playing later Friday. Nadal faces No. 28 Simon Gilles and sixth-seeded Roddick is against Philipp Kohlschreiber in a night match.

Last year’s two women’s finalists were to follow each other on Vodafone Arena, with defending champion Serena Williams facing No. 26 Victoria Azarenka and fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova against another Russian, Elena Vesnina.

A win for Williams would send her into a fourth-round match against No. 12 Nicole Vaidisova, who beat Japan’s Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-4 on Friday.

Wimbledon champion Venus Williams made 44 unforced errors and struggled with her serve in a grinding 7-5, 6-4 win over Camille Pin. Williams will face No. 31 Sania Mirza of India.

No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 4 Ana Ivanovic, No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze, No. 9 Daniela Hantuchova and No. 14 Nadia Petrova joined them in the third round.

No. 3 Novak Djokovic and No. 10 David Nalbandian advanced on the men’s side.

Nalbandian, 8-8 career with Federer and with the most recent two wins coming in October, is the only player still in the draw who has beaten Federer at Melbourne Park. He won their fourth-round match here in five sets in 2003.

They could not meet until the semifinals.

Federer won the last 10 games in a 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 win over Fabrice Santoro, ending the 35-year-old Frenchman’s record 62nd major in the second round.

AP-ES-01-17-08 2219EST


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