Clijsters, Li race towards Aussie Open tennis showdown

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. "In the media people always start to talk about the future, quarter-final, semi-final, a tough third, fourth round coming up before the tournament even starts," she said. "I don't like to waste my energy on those kind of thoughts, because I can use all that focus on whatever match I have coming up next." 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. "I was hitting the ball well and seeing the ball well -- I did what I had to do," Clijsters said. Fifth seed Li was broken in the first set but she proved too strong for Rogowska in front of a host of cheering Chinese fans on Rod Laver Arena. "I think today, the score looks like it was easy, but some games she was fighting a lot," Li said. "I mean, she's young. I think she needs more experience. I am 29 years old, so I have a lot of experience on the court." Li, who made the semi-finals in 2010 as well as last year's final, said she enjoyed coming back to the Australian Open's centre court. "Coming back to Rod Laver Arena, I was feeling, yeah, I like this court a lot, I like to hit on this court," she said. Li became Asia's first grand slam singles winner at the French Open in 2011, a result which catapulted her to super-stardom in China. She now takes on Anabel Medina Garrigues in the third round after the Spanish 26th seed thumped Belarusian Olga Govortsova 6-1, 6-0. Elsewhere Czech player Iveta Benesova upset China's 16th seed Peng Shuai 6-2, 6-4.