كتب : Reem Abulleil
The 24-year-old Russian survived a major scare against 25th-seeded Baghdatis, who captured the first set 6-2 before squandering two-game leads in both the second and third sets, to finally succumb to a 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 defeat to Davydenko.
Davydenko, who reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and Doha and made the semifinals at Rotterdam and Sydney earlier this year, next takes on 22nd-seeded Croatian, Mario Ancic.
Ancic booked his fourth round spot after claiming a hard-fought 7-6 (4), 6-7 (11), 6-2 victory over France’s Florent Serra.
Meanwhile, third-seed and reigning Masters Cup champion, David Nalbandian shook off a bad start against Paris Masters champion, Tomas Berdych, to pull through 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-0.
The Argentine next takes on 15th-seeded Czech, Radek Stepanek, who scraped past Nicolas Massu of Chile, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 7-5.
On the women’s side, top-seeded Amelie Mauresmo powered through to the fourth round with a solid 6-0, 6-4 win over 30th-seeded Marion Bartoli of France.
The reigning Australian Open champion will next face Serbian teenager, Ana Ivanovic, who beat Ukranian qualifier, Alona Bondarenko in three sets.
Russian seeds, Maria Sharapova, Anastasia Myskina, Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova also claimed easy third round wins on Sunday.
Fourth-seeded Sharapova will face Kirilenko in the fourth round whereas Myskina will also meet one of her compatriots, Anna Chakvetadze.
Petrova’s fourth round opponent will be Greek qualifier, Eleni Daniilidou, who stunned 13th-seeded Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.