Fourth seed Amelie Mauresmo cruised into the third round of the Australian Open with a straight-sets victory over Slovakian Ludmila Cervanova.
World number one Justine Henin-Hardenne has been laid low with a stomach upset and had to battle hard for her second round 6-1 6-4 victory over Camille Pin.
Henin-Hardenne will play 30th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova while Mauresmo faces Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues.
Fifth seed Lindsay Davenport dropped the second set against plucky Emilie Loit, who gave Serena Williams a major scare last year, before closing out the win 6-3 3-6 6-0.
Daniela Hantuchova's brittle confidence took another knock when she was dumped out in the second round. The 15th-seeded Slovakian's 6-4 6-3 defeat by local favourite Alicia Molik showed that she was still struggling to regain her confidence after her dramatic slide down the world rankings last year.
Greek 19th seed Elena Daniilidou recovered from a dropped first set to beat Zimbabwean Cara Black 3-6 6-0 6-1 and will play Italian qualifier Mara Santangelo after her victory over Barbara Schett.
There were also victories for seeds Vera Zvonareva (11) and Fabiola Zuluaga (31) but two more fell today, with Russian Elena Bovina (21) and Bulgaria's Magdalena Maleeva (24) both bowing out.
Bovina lost in straight sets to 20-year-old Claudine Schaul of Luxembourg. Veteran Maleeva took the first set on a tie-break from unseeded Petra Mandula, but then succumbed as the Hungarian ran out a 6-7 (6/8) 6-2 6-3 victor.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
