TENNIS US OPENROGER FEDERER beat Thiago Alves of Brazil, a player ranked 135 places below him, to move closer to a fifth straight US Open title last night.

The second-seeded Swiss defeated Alves 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 in New York to move into the third round.

Second-seed Jelena Jankovic also won, beating doubles specialist Zheng Jie in straight sets to advance to the fourth round.

"It was a really difficult match," Federer said in a televised courtside interview.

"I'd never heard of him before. He did well. I am happy to be through."

Federer, who turned 27 this month, is bidding to become the first man since Bill Tilden in 1924 to win a fifth straight title at the US Open.

Last night's win marks Federer's 29th successive victory at Flushing Meadows.

His last loss was against Argentina's David Nalbandian in 2003, in the fourth round.

He entered the US Open without a hard court title this season for the first time since 2001. If he fails to win in New York, it will be the first time since 2002 that he has ended the season without a major title.

Federer was beaten by top-ranked Rafael Nadal of Spain at the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon.

The Spaniard ended Federer's record 237-week reign on top of the world rankings on August 18th.

Federer eased through the first set in 27 minutes against the 26-year-old Brazilian, who was playing in his second US Open.

Federer took 73 minutes to close out the second. He waved to the crowd and hit signed balls into the stands after closing the third set 6-4 with a winner on the line.

Jankovic, of Serbia, defeated Zheng 7-5, 7-5 in the first match of the day at Arthur Ashe Stadium. She has now beaten Zheng, of China, in three of their four meetings.

Serving for the match at 6-5, Jonkovic converted her fifth match point, after 11 deuces, when Zheng dumped a forehand into the net.

"I'm happy that I managed to get the win in two sets," Jankovic told reporters after the match.

"If you want to beat her, you really have to beat her until the end. She's not going to give up any time."

Zheng, who is ranked 37th in the world, defeated world number one Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in the third round at Wimbledon.

Ivanovic was stunned at the US Open yesterday when she was defeated 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 by Julie Coin in the second round.

Ranked 188th in the word, Frenchwoman Coin recorded eight aces and benefited from 34 unforced errors by Ivanovic to bounce the Serb from the tournament.

Hampered by a thumb injury that kept her out of the Beijing Olympics, Ivanovic pulled out a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Russian Vera Dushevina on Tuesday in the first round.

The 20-year-old Ivanovic is one of three women - along with Jankovic and Maria Sharapova - to hold the top spot in the rankings since last year's US Open winner, Justine Henin, retired in May.

"I was nervous going onto the court because I never saw (Coin) play before, so I didn't know what to expect," Ivanovic said.

"I thought I can slowly get into the match, and she played completely different than I expected.

"She was serving extremely well and hitting very powerful shots."

Although she improved to just 19 wins and 18 defeats this season, Coin played like a seasoned champion at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Conversely, Ivanovic's play left much to be desired as she double-faulted at key moments of the third set.

Coin's next opponent is number 32 Amelie Mauresmo of France, who rallied for a 2-6 6-4 6-0 triumph over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.

Elena Dementieva, the fifth seed, defeated British number one Anne Keothavong 6-3, 6-4.

Keothavong (24) is the first British woman to advance to the third round of the Open since 1991.

The match was not at all one-sided, with Keothavong pushing Dementieva all the way only to convert just three of 10 break points in the 88-minute encounter on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court at the National Tennis Center.

"She was a lot more consistent than I was today," Keothavong said of the world number five. "She's a lot more experienced in these kinds of situations.

"You know, everyone told me her serve was a weakness but she didn't give me one point on her serves.

Nikolay Davydenko, the fifth seed from Russia, beat Agustin Calleri of Argentina, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), while Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, the 11th seed, beat Bobby Reynolds of the US 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, 6-4.

Dmitry Tursunov, the number 26 seed from Russia, beat Victor Hanescu of Romania, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.