Clijsters, Li race towards Open showdown

MELBOURNE: Belgium's Kim Clijsters and Chinese star Li Na blazed into the Australian Open's third round Wednesday to lie just one win away from a rematch of last year's final.

Li stormed through when she beat Australian wildcard Olivia Rogowska 6-2, 6-2 on the centre court, before Clijsters demolished France's Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-0, 6-1 in just 47 minutes.

Clijsters beat Li in the final of the Australian Open last year and all eyes have been on their possible fourth-round showdown, although the Belgian insisted she hadn't looked that far ahead.

Clijsters' next match is against Daniela Hantuchova, who beat Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, but the manner in which she destroyed Foretz Gacon makes her a hot favourite against the 20th-seeded Slovakian.

The defending champion had started slowly in her win over Portugese qualifier Maria Joao Koehler on Monday, but she was switched on right from the start against Foretz Gacon, racing through the first set in just 22 minutes.

The Frenchwoman finally held serve at the start of the second set, but that was her only success as Clijsters sped away with the match.

Clijsters was so dominant that Foretz Gacon only won 24 points in the match, 13 of those coming from the Belgian's unforced errors.