Federer continues his winning ways at Open

MELBOURNE, Australia — Top seed Roger Federer earned his career-best 24th straight victory on Friday when Jarkko Nieminen was forced to retire from the third-round match at the Australian Open because of an abdominal muscle tear.

Federer led 6-3, 5-2 and had just broken Nieminen’s serve for the third time in the set when the 25-year-old Finnish player winced, clutched his right side and told the umpire he couldn’t continue.

Federer won 11 titles in 2004, including three Grand Slams. He opened 2005 with a title at Qatar — the 23rd of his career — and hasn’t lost since the second-round of the Athens Olympics last August.

Nieminen broke Federer’s serve in the opening game. He did it again in the fourth game of the second set, but a clean backhand, cross-court winner from the 23-year-old Swiss star in the next game set the tone for the remainder of the match.

Marat Safin picked himself up after twisting his right ankle and overcame hard-serving Mario Ancic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance.

The fourth-seeded Safin, who lost to Federer in last year’s Australian Open final, led by a set and a break when he twisted his ankle and fell on his face near the baseline while trying to return Ancic’s winning forehand in the third game of the fourth set.

Safin got up, limped back to his chair and was treated by trainer Per Bastholt, who gave the Russian a pill and wound more tape around his already heavily taped ankle.

Safin broke Ancic — who misfired with seven double-faults — once in each set and lost his service just twice in the second set.

French Open champion Gaston Gaudio needed treatment on both thighs during his 4 hour, 21-minute loss to Dominik Hrbaty.

Hrbaty broke Gaudio’s serve, for the 10th time, and then served out for a 7-6 (5), 6-7 (8), 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-3 victory. Hrbaty hit 70 winners, while Gaudio had 48.

On the women’s side, second seed Amelie Mauresmo beat Serbian teenager Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 7-5.

The 17-year-old Ivanovic broke Mauresmo’s serve twice in the second set, but dropped her next two service games. After having game point to force a second-set tiebreaker, Ivanovic struggled to combat Mauresmo’s backhand and made a string of errors.

Mauresmo rose to the No. 1 ranking last September before slipping behind Lindsay Davenport. Ivanovic made the biggest leap in the rankings on the WTA Tour in 2004, moving 608 spots to finish at No. 97. She won her first title last week in Canberra.

She next faces Evgenia Linetskaya, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over American Amy Frazier, seeded 21st.

In other matches, 15th-seeded Silvia Farina Elia cruised past British qualifier Elena Baltacha 6-1, 6-0.

Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova was to face China’s Li Na, and seventh-seeded Serena Williams was scheduled to meet Sania Mirza later today.

On the men’s side, four-time champion Andre Agassi was to face fellow American Taylor Dent.