Djokovic storms into 4th round

MELBOURNE, Australia – Novak Djokovic gave Nicolas Mahut one lousy birthday present.

Djokovic routed the Frenchman on his 30th birthday, taking a 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 victory early today to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Top-seeded Djokovic needed only 1 hour, 14 minutes to move past Mahut, who lost the longest match in Grand Slam history at 11 hours, 5 minutes against John Isner at Wimbledon in 2010.

“I wish him happy birthday and hopefully tonight he can enjoy it,” Djokovic said.

The defending champion is aiming to become the fifth man in the Open era to win three straight Grand Slam titles. He will play Milos Raonic or Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whom Djokovic beat at Melbourne Park for his first Grand Slam title in 2008, also hardly broke a sweat in beating Frederico Gil of Portugal, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

On the women’s side, two Wimbledon winners – Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova – advanced, but two top-10 players were eliminated.

Seventh-seeded Vera Zvonareva lost to fellow Russian Ekaterina Makerova, 7-6 (7), 6-1 . No. 9 Marion Bartoli fell, 6-3, 6-3, against Zheng Jie of China, a former Australian Open semifinalist.

Sharapova was tested for the first time, but still emerged with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Germany’s Angelique Kerber.

Kvitova reached the round of 16 when Maria Kirilenko retired with a left thigh injury while trailing 6-0, 1-0 after 38 minutes of their third-round match.

Kvitova next faces Ana Ivanovic, who beat unseeded American Vania King, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the fourth round for the first time since she reached the final here in 2008.

King’s loss left Serena Williams as the only American player in the singles draws after John Isner’s 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-7 (0), 6-1 loss to Feliciano Lopez on Friday ended any hope of a men’s champion from the United States.

Five-time champion Williams, hoping to win her 17th straight match at Melbourne Park, was scheduled to play Greta Arn of Hungary today.

Djokovic was ruthless against Mahut, who seemed to struggle with his movement. When the Frenchman won his first game early in the second set, he stretched his arms out to welcome a huge cheer from the crowd as he walked back to the service line.

Djokovic hardly made a mistake as he won 11 of the next 12 games and finished with eight unforced errors.

Six Frenchmen reached the third round, and Tsonga wasted hardly any time while becoming the first of them to move into the round of 16.

The 2008 finalist took six of his seven break-point opportunities and saved all five against him.

“I had to take it seriously and this is what I did. I’m just really happy to go through,” said Tsonga, who next plays fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau or Kei Nishikori of Japan.

An early rematch of last year’s women’s final is already in place, with defending champion Kim Clijsters and Li Na both winning late Friday to set up a fourth-round meeting.

Clijsters advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Daniela Hantuchova. Li didn’t even finish four games before Anabel Medina Garrigues quit with a badly sprained right ankle.

Garrigues twisted her right ankle in the second game and needed treatment on the court. Li won the first three games and had taken the first two points in the fourth game on Garrigues’ serve when the Spaniard hit the ball into the air. She then went – in tears – to the net to retire.