WTA

• Kuznetsova, Dementieva reach third round in New York

  
  

  Flushing Meadows, NY (Sports Network) - Former champion and last year's runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova and Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva were a pair of second-round winners Wednesday at the U.S. Open.

  The third-seeded Kuznetsova was tested in the first set before cruising to a 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 decision against Romanian Sorana Cirstea on Day 3 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

  The three-time major finalist Kuznetsova captured her lone major title here in Flushing four years ago and lost to Belgian Justine Henin in last year's Big Apple finale.

  Kuznetsova will meet Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik in the third round.

  A fifth-seeded Dementieva ran her current winning streak to eight matches with a 6-2, 6-1 pasting of France's Pauline Parmentier. Dementieva lost to Kuznetsova in the 2004 all-Russian U.S. Open finale and is fresh off her gold medal-winning performance in Beijing two weeks ago.

  Up next for the two-time major runner-up Dementieva will be Britain's Anne Keothavong.

  A big surprise came when Ukrainian Tatiana Perebiynis ousted eighth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-3. The Top-10 star Zvonareva was a bronze medalist in Beijing earlier this month.

  Fifteenth-seeded Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder cruised into the round of 32 with a 6-3, 6-3 pasting of 17-year-old Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

  An upset came when the aforementioned Keothavong took out 25th-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, while a 28th-seeded Srebotnik advanced with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Austrian Yvonne Meusburger.

  Additional second-round wins came for Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova, Chinese Na Li and Russian Ekaterina Makarova.

  08/27 14:58:39 ET