Capriati and Venus Williams race into next round

World number one Jennifer Capriati got off to a fast start while defending champion Venus Williams had trouble finding top gear but the top seeds arrived at the same place on Saturday by reaching the third round of the Nasdaq-100 Open Masters.

Second seed Williams, who surrendered the number one ranking to Capriati last Monday, struggled early but finished strong, launching her bid for a fourth consecutive Miami Masters title with a 4-6 6-2 6-1 win over the Danish qualifier Eva Dyrberg.

Capriati, seeded number one, pulled into Crandon Park driving a new Ferrari given to her earlier in the week by her clothing sponsor then sped past Greek Eleni Daniilidou 6-0 6-3 in just 63 minutes.

Fourth seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium was also on cruise control easing past Frenchwoman Stephanie Foretz 6-2 6-3 but the second round marked the end of the road for Clijster's compatriot sixth seed Justine Henin, who fell 6-7 6-3 6-4 to Israel's Anna Smashnova.

Monica Seles, who has played in six events this season and brushed aside each of her opening opponents in straight sets, was forced to go the distance by Spain's Conchita Martinez before prevailing 5-7 6-4 6-3.

And it was back to reality for 13th seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova who fell 4-6 6-4 6-2 to Zimbabwe's Cara Black in her first match since claiming her first career title last Sunday with an upset win over Switzerland's Martin Hingis in the final at Indian Wells.

In three visits to Miami the 18-year-old has yet to win a match.

NEW CLOTHING

Dressed completely in red in a new specially designed line of Ferrari clothing, Capriati broke Daniilidou to open the match and never took her foot off the accelerator racing through the first seven games.

After the match, the Australian Open champion fielded more questions about the performance of her $160,000 sports car than her's on the court.

"I didn't think I would ever get so excited about a car," smiled Capriati. "Players are asking me for rides.

"Even the guy players are talking to me more.

"I guess because they think I'm cool now."

Daniilidou, who dispatched Anna Kournikova in the opening round, went the entire match without holding serve but did manage to break her American opponent three times in the second set.

The Greek had looked poised to stage a late rally when she broke to cut the deficit to 4-2 but saw any hopes of a comeback dashed when she slipped and injured her left leg.

After taking an injury time out Daniilidou returned to the court with a heavily bandaged thigh and from that point on could offer only token resistance as Capriati closed out the match.

STRUGGLED EARLY

Williams, the winner of three tournaments this year appeared out of sorts in the first set of her opening match committing 20 unforced errors and double-faulting three times.

But down set and struggling at 2-2 in the second the Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion suddenly found another gear sweeping the next seven games to take the set and a commanding 3-0 lead in the third.

"If you haven't played in a few weeks you can be pretty rusty," said Williams, who had not played since Dubai in the middle of February. "Being the first round and I haven't played for a few weeks it can be pretty tough to get your rhythm.

"I didn't feel off, I just felt like she was playing good tennis.

"But on some of the key points I was missing my shots, so I had to tighten up in the second and third."