Female seeds march on

Clijsters: Clinical streak

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Defending champion Kim Clijsters eased into the fourth round at Flushing Meadows after a 6-3 6-0 victory over Petra Kvitova.

The second-seeded Belgian slipped to a 3-0 deficit at the start of the contest but then reeled off 12 consecutive games to close out the win in just over an hour.

Clijsters struggled on serve in the early stages and Wimbledon semi-finalist Kvitova took advantage to gain two breaks.

But Clijsters hit back in the fourth game before securing her first hold of the match after a tight fifth game.

From then on, the 27-year-old would dominate the set as her powerful groundstrokes clicked into action and Kvitova began to falter.

Rocky spell

Clijsters, who has now won 17 successive matches at Flushing Meadows, took the momentum into the second set as the shell-shocked Czech committed several errors in the process of losing the set to love.

"My serve has been causing me some problems in the last few weeks but, once I came back from 3-0 down, I was able to be more aggressive," the two-time US Open champion said.

Former world number one Ana Ivanovic now stands in Clijsters' way of a quarter-final place after the Serbian beauty saw off Virginie Razzano later on Friday.

Ivanovic battled through the first set before romping to a 7-5 6-0 win on Louis Armstrong Stadium.

Number 11 seed Elena Dementieva also claimed a straight-sets victory in her third-round meeting with Daniela Hantuchova.

The Russian overcame a rocky spell in the third set to see off the 27-year-old Slovakian 7-5 6-2.

Dementieva secured an early break before her game temporarily fell apart and Hantuchova gained a double break of her own to move to the brink of the set.

But then it was Hantuchova's turn to collapse as Dementieva came from behind to win five straight games and take the first set.

Hantuchova's game did not recover from the setback and the 2004 runner-up sailed through the second set to progress comfortably.

Dangerous

French Open finalist Samantha Stosur is next in line for Dementieva after she made it safely into round three without any drama.

The number five seed was on top form as she defeated Italy's Sara Errani 6-2 6-3 on Louis Armstrong Stadium.

French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, who had dropped only four games in her previous two matches at Flushing Meadows, made it three straight-sets wins out of three with victory over Alona Bondarenko.

The number six seed prevailed 6-1 7-5 and will play dangerous Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova - a 6-1 6-2 victory over Gisela Dulko - for a place in the quarter-finals.