Tue May 6 14:34:22 2008

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Surging Serena cruises in Berlin opener

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Berlin, Germany (Sports Network) - Red-hot American Serena Williams was an easy second-round winner Tuesday at the $1.34 million German Open, a clay- court French Open tune-up.

The fifth-seeded former world No. 1 Williams handled Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-3 on the red clay at LTTC Rot-Weiss.

The 26-year-old Williams, the 2002 Berlin runner-up, is now 20-1 this season, including a torrid 16-match winning streak. The eight-time Grand Slam champion is seeking her fourth straight tournament title this week. She hasn't lost a match since bowing out against Serbian Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinals at January's Australian Open.

In other second-round action, seventh-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva drubbed Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 6-2 and eighth-seeded Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli of France blitzed Czech Lucie Safarova 6-0, 6-3.

A pair of seeds lost their first-round matches on Day 2, as Russian Vera Dushevina knocked out ninth-seeded Swiss Patty Schnyder 6-2, 6-3 and hot Argentine Gisela Dulko ousted 12th-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Dulko is fresh off her title in Morocco last week.

In other first-round play, last week's Prague runner-up, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, erased Aussie Casey Dellacqua 6-2, 6-2 and last week's Morocco runner-up, Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues. got past Tathiana Garbin 3-6, 7-5, 2-2, as the Italian retired with left thigh injury in the third set.

Additional opening-round wins came for Colombian qualifier Catalina Castano, Russians Maria Kirilenko and qualifier Alisa Kleybanova, Chinese Shuai Peng and Zi Yan and Uzbekistanian lucky-loser Akgul Amanmuradova.

On Wednesday, second-round matches will come for world No. 1 Justine Henin, reigning Berlin titlist Ana Ivanovic and U.S. Open runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova. Henin will take on Taipei's Yung-Jan Chan, while a second-seeded Ivanovic will face Amanmuradova and a third-seeded Kuznetsova will tangle with Castano. The French and Australian Open runner-up Ivanovic topped Kuznetsova in last year's Berlin finale.

The reigning French and U.S. Open champion Henin was the Berlin winner in 2002, 2003 and 2005 and the runner-up here in 2006. The Belgian star will see her first action since losing to Williams in a quarterfinal in Miami over a month ago.

The 2008 German Open titlist will pocket $196,900.