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The top seed Caroline Wozniacki is making the most of her rich vein of form; if there is a question about the world number two it is that she may have already overplayed this season. The Dane has played 25 tournaments this year; she will have played for four straight weeks if she keeps her date with the final in New York and only time will tell if she can hold her game all the way into Super Saturday. Meanwhile, she is doing all she can to conserve energy breezing through her early rounds. It took her less than 50 minutes to wrap up her second round match against Kai-Chen Chang. Sharapova was an easy winner but not very convincing in her 66 minute 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of Iveta Benesova.

Wozniacki has been completing her matches in a rush as if to save herself for the second week. It wasn't very different in the second round against Chang, who suffered a bagel in 22 minutes to go down by a set against the top seed. Chang had a relatively positive start to the second set, but she lost her way from 40-15 in the first game to be broken yet again. Wozniacki never looked back from there to complete a rout, serving a double bagel to Chang to win in just 47 minutes.

Sharapova was never troubled by her opponent, and the Russian exploited Benesova's weakness on the second serve to claim easy points. The Czech also dented her own cause, making 26 unforced errors against just 6 winners. However, Maria has her work cut out for the tougher battles ahead, clearly needing to iron out the chinks in her game if she harbours ambitions of progressing deeper into the tournament. Sharapova had 21 unforced errors of her own, besides serving 4 double faults as she managed to put in only 52% of her first serves in play.

Last year Sharapova was upset by an upcoming American who went by the name of Melanie Oudin. Yet another fledgling 18 year old is trekking in the footsteps of Oudin - Beatrice Capra, who trains at the Evert Academy, is writing her own fairytale this year inspired by the heroics of Oudin last year. Now Capra has the unenvious task of taking on Sharapova in the third round.

Playing in the Grandstand, Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai was taken to task by Capra - making the most of her wild card into the main draw - to outlast Rezai over three sets 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. In a match of undulating fortunes, the home crowd's vociferous support helped Capra across the finish line. The 371st ranked American had never played a tour level match before this year's US Open - now she has won two matches in a row to earn a bagful of points and the adoration of a growing number of American fans.

The match between 4th seed Jelena Jankovic and the Croatian Mirjana Lucic lived up to pre-match expectations. Lucic was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 1999 but after falling victim to an over-zealous father, is currently on a comeback trail trying to live life on her own terms. It is a story of poignant drama and a woman's determination to win back her life while playing tennis. Lucic was up early in the final set, with a break in hand but she conceded four straight games to Jankovic to lose in three sets 4-6, 6-3, 2-6. Jankovic has yet to find her best tennis; she will face Estonia's Kaia Kanepi in the next round.

The 2004 US Open Champion Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced to a third round encounter with Maria Kirilenko after making light of Anastasija Sevastova - winning 84% of her first serve points to post a convincing 6-2, 6-3 victory in 71 minutes.

The Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva had the honour of opening action on Arthur Ashe against the German Sabine Lisicki, ranked 94 in the world. Neither player produced the game to match the grandeur of the stage and battle turned into a war of attrition. The Russian took advantage of Lisicki's inability to hold serve to clinch the first set 6-1.

So much so that the first time Lisicki held serve in the match was in the eighth game of the second set, in the fifteenth game of the match to level the score at 4-4. She broke Zvonareva for a fifth time and in a remarkable situation at 5-4 in the second set, she had to just hold serve for only the second time in the entire match to get into a third set. Once again Lisicki failed to hold and the Russian won the next two games to take a 6-5 lead, forcing Lisicki to serve to stay in the match. And she did hold serve on this occasion to take the set into a tie-break.

Incredibly enough, the 7th seed followed an ace with a double fault to once again leave the set on Lisicki's racket at 5-4 in the tie-break. Yet again, the German failed to find her serve, as she lost two straight points. Zvonareva accepted the invitation with both hands as she clinched the match 6-1, 7-6(5). As baffling as the stats from this match will be, with 13 breaks of serve and as many as 26 break points for both players combined - Zvonareva has to improve significantly if she wants to make the second week in New York.

The 22nd seeded Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez joined nine other women's seeds on the sidelines when she lost a tight contest against the former top ten player Patty Schnyder. The Spaniard lost 7-6(2), 6-4 in 93 minutes to become the tenth seeded player among the women to lose before the round of 32. However, the Belgian 15th seed Yanina Wickmayer continued her run at the Big Apple, winning 6-4, 7-5 against the German Julia Goerges.

The Radwanska sisters made an early exit - the ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska was upset by Shuai Peng 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 to complete a miserable day for the family. Earlier in the day Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain defeated Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 7-5. The Polish hope for a semi-final between the sisters will remain a distant dream for now. The sisters' misery was compounded with Urszula losing her doubles encounter playing alongside Alberta Brianti. The pair lost 2-6, 3-6 to Cara Black and Anastasia Rodionova.

Sania Mirza's women's doubles campaign too came to an end - the eleventh seeded Alisa Kleybanova and Ekaterina Makarova defeated Vera Dushevina and Sania 6-7(6), 6-2, 7-6(3).

Select Scores

Singles - Second Round
(1) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. Chang Kai-Chen (TPE) 60 60
(4) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) d. (Q) Mirjana Lucic (CRO) 64 36 62
(7) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) d. Sabine Lisicki (GER) 61 76(5)
(11) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) 62 63
(14) Maria Sharapova (RUS) d. Iveta Benesova (CZE) 61 62
(15) Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) d. Julia Goerges (GER) 64 75
(WC) Beatrice Capra (USA) d. (18) Aravane Rezai (FRA) 75 26 63
Patty Schnyder (SUI) d. (22) María José Martínez Sánchez (ESP) 76(2) 64
(23) Maria Kirilenko (RUS) d. Yvonne Meusburger (AUT) 46 75 60
(25) Alexandra Dulgheru (ROU) d. Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) 76(5) 61
(31) Kaia Kanepi (EST) d. (Q) Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB) 62 64

Doubles - First Round
(1) Dulko/Pennetta (ARG/ITA) d. Parra Santonja/Voracova (ESP/CZE) 46 61 62
(4) Peschke/Srebotnik (CZE/SLO) d. Kvitova/Voegele (CZE/SUI) 61 62
(5) Raymond/Stubbs (USA/AUS) d. Kondratieva/Uhlirova (RUS/CZE) 61 62
(6) King/Shvedova (USA/KAZ) d. Kostanic Tosic/Oprandi (CRO/ITA) 63 60
(7) Chan/Zheng (TPE/CHN) d. Daniilidou/Pironkova (GRE/BUL) 62 61
(9) Black/Rodionova (ZIM/AUS) d. Brianti/U.Radwanska (ITA/POL) 62 63
(11) Kleybanova/Makarova (RUS/RUS) d. Dushevina/Mirza (RUS/IND) 67(6) 62 76(3)

Click here for the Men's wrap