Henin, Venus reach third round at the Open

Flushing Meadows, NY (Sports Network) - World No. 1 Justine Henin and two- time champion Venus Williams were among Wednesday's second-round winners at the U.S. Open.
The reigning three-time French Open champ and 2006 U.S. Open runner-up Henin easily got past Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4, 6-0 in 68 minutes.
The six-time major champion Henin lost to Russian superstar Maria Sharapova in last year's finale in Flushing and captured her lone U.S. Open title back in 2003.
Henin's third-round opponent will be little-known Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
A 12th-seeded Williams waltzed past Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-4, 6-2 in 69 minutes on the grounds at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The reigning Wimbledon champion Williams captured the U.S. Open back-to-back in 2000 and 2001 and was the runner-up here in 1997 and 2002.
Fifth-seeded French Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic, considered among the pre- tournament favorites here, drilled France's Aravane Rezai 6-3, 6-1. The hard- hitting Serbian star's third-round opponent will be Russian Vera Dushevina, who beat her compatriot Ekaterina Bychkova 6-4, 6-3 on Day 3.
Former U.S. Open runner-up Elena Dementieva, seeded 14th, moved on by pasting Czech Petra Cetkovska 6-3, 6-2. The two-time major finalist Dementieva lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2004 all-Russian title bout here.
Nineteenth-seeded Austrian Sybille Bammer handled American veteran Meghann Shaughnessy 6-4, 6-3, while a mild upset occurred when the aforementioned Makarova topped 28th-seeded Japanese Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.