Safin siblings, Federer win at Open

MELBOURNE: The Safin family surged through the Australian Open draw yesterday, women's third seed Dinara and men's former world No 1 Marat sliding into round three.

Big brother Safin thundered through to a mouth-watering showdown with second seed Roger Federer after he crushed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, while Safina, chasing her maiden grand slam title, beat fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-7, 6-3, 6-0.

Federer stormed to a 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Russia's Evgeny Korolev.