MELBOURNE: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko stamped their authority on the Australian Open but former World No 1 Ana Ivanovic was sent packing.

Federer turned on a royal performance to sweep majestically into the third round. Watched by Britain’s Prince William in the official box, the World No 1 was in imperious touch, rifling through Romanian Victor Hanescu in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2, in a breezy one hour 39 minutes.

Federer, bidding for his 16th Grand Slam title and fourth Australian Open, will now take on Spanish 31st-seed Albert Montanes in the next round. Federer was in blinding touch on Rod Laver Arena. He broke Hanescu’s serve five times and didn’t drop his own, while hitting 52 winners, 28 of them with the forehand. Federer is on track to face either former finalists, Lleyton Hewitt or Marcos Baghdatis, in the fourth round and a potential quarter-final with Davydenko.

Third seed Djokovic overcame some early first set wobbles to ease past Swiss Marco Chiudinelli 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena and set up a third round clash with Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin. More impressive was Russian sixth seed Davydenko, who is shaping as a serious title contender after extending his win streak to 11 matches, stretching back to last year. The 28-year-old has yet to win a Grand Slam and has never been in a final but his 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 disposal of Ukrainian qualifier Illya Marchenko served notice that his time may have come.

For Ivanovic, it looks like her time has past. The former finalist and world No 1 put in an error-riddled performance to crash out to experienced Argentinian Gisela Dulko 6-7 (6/8), 7-5, 6-4, with her groundstrokes deserting her after the first set. The disappointing exit came as she tries to rejuvenate her career after battling indifferent form and injuries last year. She slipped down the rankings to be outside the top 20 for the first time in five years, and Thursday’s flop was the sixth time in her past seven tournaments where she had failed to go beyond the second round.

In other matches, Danish fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki breezed past Germany’s Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-1 while ninth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonereva had an easy 6-0, 6-3 win over Czech Iveta Benesova. Seventh seeded Belarrussian Victoria Azarenka stayed in contention with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Stefanie Voegele.

Among the men, unseeded former finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus advanced with a gruelling 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 6-1 win over Spanish 17th seed David Ferrer. The 26th seeded Nicolas Almagro ousted German Benjamin Becker in tough five sets while Istomin booked his showdown with Djokovic by overcoming Germany’s Michael Berrer 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.