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 Santoro's record 62nd Grand Slam tournament came to an abrupt end at the hands of top-ranked Roger Federer, who needed only 1 hour and 21 minutes to beat his off-court friend 6-1, 6-2, 6-0.
It went by so fast, that Santoro asked Federer to wait a moment on match point, pointing to the scoreboard and smiling. The Swiss star got a chuckle out of it, too, then got in a serve-and-volley winner with Santoro inching closer to the service line.
"It was a tough match for me," Santoro explained. "It was not easy to have fun, but I tried to have some."
Despite the rout, Santoro was ready to take on Federer again.
"Because it's so beautiful, what he's doing," the 35-year-old Frenchman said. "At my age, you can be able to play your match and appreciate your opponent, too.
"Today, I feel like he's coming from somewhere else. I served quite good. I was moving well. I was fit physically. I was hitting the ball well. And I won three games."
Williams managed to pull through against Pin, who is mostly a retriever with few weapons other than defense. On a day when nothing was working for Williams
-- she finished with 44 unforced errors to 27 winners -- that was just enough.
Williams looked stiff, sluggish and out of sorts, trudging back to the baseline in growing bewilderment as she sprayed balls all over the court. She was clearly trying to win points as quickly as possible, venturing to the net 39 times and often going for high-risk winners. At times, she rubbed the left side of her abdomen, but later said she felt fine.
Pin pulled ahead 5-4 in the first set after breaking Williams at love -- thanks to three double-faults
-- only to see the American pull herself together long enough to take the last three games.
Muttering to herself, Williams found herself fighting from behind again at 2-4. Finally picking up her level of play, Williams had her best stretch, grunting as she ripped stinging winners to take the last four games.
Her first smile came as she acknowledged the crowd's cheers.
"She's a real fighter ... really feisty," said Williams, who now plays No. 31 Sania Mirza of India, who ousted Timea Bacsinszky.
As in his opening match, Federer was at the top of his game against Santoro, who broke Andre Agassi's record of 61 Grand Slam tournaments.
Long a crowd favorite, using guile to make up for lack of power and with slices and dices, Santoro was sharp, too, committing only four unforced errors.
But Federer made things look so easy in the good-natured match, moving fluidly and always in the right place at the right time, often setting up winners in advance with well-placed shots as if he were playing chess.
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On one point, Federer barely retrieved a ball that just dropped over. Santoro got a full backhand swing at the return, but Federer blocked it back for a winner for his second break of the third set. As they walked to their chairs for the changeover, Santoro plucked a ball from his pocket and playfully tossed it in Federer's direction.
Federer won the last 10 games, ended it with a serve-and-volley as Santoro edged in almost to the service box, then clambered over the net to embrace the Frenchman.
Dictating play, Federer ended up with 53 winners and 18 unforced errors.
When Santoro did win a closely contested point when Federer miscued an overhead from an opportunistic defensive lob, he threw up his hands in victory and jogged around in circles as if he had just finished off the match.
"Obviously I always enjoy the match against Fabrice," said Federer, chasing his third consecutive Australian Open title and his 13th major. "First time I played him, he totally dismantled me. Showed I had a lot of things to work on.
"Today I was in great shape, could play aggressive. We always have great rallies together, because of his playing style ... he does a great job of making you doubt. It's always a tricky match against him. But you know it's going to be fun. And this is what it's supposed to be, this game."
Second-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova, a former U.S. Open champion, rallied from 5-2 down in the first set to win in straight sets against Tsvetana Pironkova. Other women's seeded players advancing were No. 4 Ana Ivanovic, No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze, No. 9 Daniela Hantuchova and No. 14 Nadia Petrova.
Joining Federer in the third round were No. 3 Novak Djokovic, No. 5 David Ferrer, No. 7 Fernando Gonzalez, No. 10 David Nalbandian, No. 12 James Blake, No. 13 Tomas Berdych, No. 19 Lleyton Hewitt and former No. 1-ranked Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Nalbandian, who beat Federer and second-ranked Rafael Nadal to win consecutive tournaments in Paris and Madrid last October, had a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-1 win over Australian Peter Luczak.
[Associated Press; By PAUL ALEXANDER]
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