The seeded players are still dominating the US Open, although women's number 15 seed Magdalena Maleeva was beaten by 68th ranked Alicia Molik. Second seed Jennifer Capriati reached the third round by routing Australian Evie Dominikovic 6-2 6-0, while defending champion Venus Williams comfortably dispatched fellow American Meilen Tu 6-2 6-2.
In the men's competition, title holder Marat Safin and two-time champion Andre Agassi both had to survive fierce battles to reach the men's third round. It took second seed Agassi three hours and 20 minutes to overcome the challenge by 86th-ranked Chilean Nicolas Massu. Number 3 seed Safin took nearly three and a half hours to beat Croatia's 48th-ranked Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5).
Britain's 30th-seeded Greg Rusedski won through in an epic battle against Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman 7-5, 7-5, 6-7 (8/10), 7-6 (8/6) in a rematch of their 1997 US Open semi-final. Rudedski was docked a penalty point for his second code violation when he hit the ball at a line judge after losing his serve in the fourth set.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
