ESPN 2008 US Open

NEW YORK -- Jelena Jankovic bent over her racket, leaned against a back wall with a towel pressed to her face and sprawled on her stomach in the middle of center court.

AP Photo/Elise AmendolaLindsay Davenport, who won the women's title in 1998, won her first-round match.

Then the No. 2 seed gutted her way into the third round of the U.S. Open.

Jankovic outlasted Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-5 on Wednesday on yet another uncharacteristically mild August day in Flushing Meadows.

Also Wednesday, Svetlana Kuznetsova shook off an early break and rallied to a 7-6 (3), 6-1 victory over Sorana Cirstea, while Olympic champion Elena Dementieva stepped up a gear to reach the third round with a 6-2, 6-1 demolition of Pauline Parmentier of France. Former champ Lindsay Davenport, the No. 23 seed, beat Alisa Kleybanova 7-5, 6-3.

The combination of not being in match condition following a summer knee injury and an array of hard forehands and well-placed drop shots by Arvidsson left Jankovic fighting to get her wind during the 2-hour, 44-minute match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"That was a really tough one," said Jankovic, who has reached the fourth round in the first three Grand Slam events this year. "As you can see, I am completely out of breath. She really pushed me to the limit."

Jankovic twice served for the win in the middle set against Arvidsson but couldn't put her away -- even with a match point in reach. Jankovic held off Arvidsson in a back-and-forth third set when both had trouble holding serve.

When Arvidsson fired long on the final point, Jankovic had her third service break of the third set and eighth overall. There was suddenly a spring in her step as she waved and blew kisses to the crowd.

Even with the squandered chances on her serve, Jankovic still had an opportunity to advance without going the distance. She jumped to a 3-0 lead in the second-set tiebreak before losing six straight points. Jankovic extended the set by winning two points on her serve but fired wide as she approached the net -- drawing an exuberant "Yeah!" from Arvidsson.

Several times, Jankovic hunched over and leaned on her racket but didn't appear to be in distress. The Serb, who held the No. 1 ranking earlier this year, lost in the fourth round at Wimbledon after injuring a knee in the previous match.

If anything ailed her other than fatigue Wednesday, it wasn't evident in the decisive third set when she raced to a 3-0 edge. Jankovic doubled over again when a fortuitous shot by Arvidsson crept over the net after it smacked the cord in the fourth game, but that appeared more out of exasperation than discomfort.

After a drop shot eluded her dive, Jankovic dropped to the court facedown and stayed there for several moments. If anything, it gave her a brief rest.

"I'm still not yet at my full potential, but I'm trying my best," said Jankovic, whose serve was broken twice in each set. "I am still a long way from where I want to be."

[+] Enlarge

AP Photo/Charles KrupaSvetlana Kuznetsova trailed 4-2 in the opening set but got back on serve and eventually forced a tiebreak before winning in straight sets.

She will next face Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng Jie, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Kuznetsova, the 2004 champion and No. 3 seed this year, trailed 4-2 in the opening set before getting back on serve and eventually forcing a tiebreak that she dominated against her inexperienced opponent. She cruised to a 5-0 lead in the second and closed out the match in 1 hour, 13 minutes at Arthur Ashe Stadium to set up a third-round match with No. 28 Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia, who beat Austria's Yvonne Meusburger 6-1, 6-3.

Kuznetsova admitted she was struggling for form but said she was not overly concerned.

"You know what? I don't think you should be coming into a Grand Slam event and playing your best game in the first [rounds]," she said. "I think I want to grow every match playing better and better.

"Today I played much better than my first match, so it's looking good for me. Definitely I'm not in my best shape now, and I haven't been playing well before the U.S. Open. But Grand Slams kind of keep me much more motivated and I do much more better in Grand Slams," she said.

In just her fourth career Grand Slam event, Cirstea is forging a bit of a bad habit. Cirstea, who made her debut at a major in this year's Australian Open, led there by a break three times in the opening set against current world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic, only to fall 7-5, 6-3 in the first-round match.

She reached the second round at the French Open and Wimbledon.

Davenport, champion in 1998, struggled to find her range in the opening match of the night session but capitalized on 27 unforced errors from Kleybanova to seal victory.

"I didn't play quite as well as I did the other day [in the first round]. Didn't find my rhythm but sometimes you just have to get through these matches," said the 32-year-old, who missed the 2007 tournament while on maternity leave.

"I'm ecstatic to be in the third round," she said.

She will next face 12th-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain.

Davenport served for the opening set up 5-4 but some dogged play from her 19-year-old opponent meant she had to toil on for another two games before bagging it.

Kleybanova, competing at the Open for the first time, tried to stay in the hunt in the second set but was eventually outclassed and bowed out by tipping a backhand wide.

The victory gave Davenport her best Grand Slam showing of the year after losing in the second round at the Australian Open, skipping the French and withdrawing with a knee injury from the second round at Wimbledon.

"I still look at it as this is where I should be if I'm healthy and can play halfway decent," Davenport said. "I feel like I can still be successful.

"I'm obviously probably more excited than maybe I used to be by getting to the third round, but I feel when I'm in a tournament and I'm competing and I'm healthy that I should be winning some of these matches. But I'm still looking for more," she said.

Davenport, who waved to her baby son, Jagger, up in the stands after her victory, said she felt her game beginning to come together after returning from Beijing, where she played doubles in the Olympics.

"It was only when I got back from China maybe last Saturday that I was able to start practicing for singles," she said. "So to expect I would be out here and be perfect is probably shooting for the stars a little bit too much.

"I don't feel like I'm that far off. I just feel I'm timing the ball just a little bit late ... not as perfect as I'd like it to be. If I can get that going, hit more penetrating shots, I feel I can turn my game around," she said.

U.S. Open Fast Facts

On this date: On Aug. 27, 1985, 14-year-old Mary Joe Fernandez became the youngest player to win a U.S. Open match, beating Sara Gomer in straight sets.

Stat of the day: Fourteen of the 34 games in the Jelena Jankovic-Sofia Arvidsson match were service breaks. Jankovic won eight and Arvidsson six.

-- The Associated Press

Having been pushed hard by Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova in her opening match, Russian fifth seed Dementieva was never in trouble and cruised past the world No. 49 in 58 minutes.

Parmentier, 22, who has never been beyond the second round at a Grand Slam, broke Dementieva twice but did not hold her own serve in the opening set.

An early break put Dementieva ahead in the second set and she cruised through to a meeting with unseeded Anne Keothavong, who became the first British woman to reach the third round of the U.S. Open since 1991 when she knocked out 25th seed Francesca Schiavone with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win.

Keothavong, beaten by eventual champion Venus Williams in the second round at Wimbledon this year, made a promising start when she broke Schiavone in the opening game of the match.

But the Italian hit back to tie the second set and roared to a 4-2 lead in the third. Keothavong, ranked 87th, refused to accept defeat and clawed back to seal victory.

Jo Durie was the last British woman to reach the last 32 at Flushing Meadows. She eventually lost in the fourth round.

"I guess it's a nice feeling just to get women's tennis out there," the 87th-ranked Keothavong said. "There are women out there who are doing things in British tennis and it's nice to know that it's just not Andy Murray out there.

"It's nice to kind of be with him at these events and share it with him," she said.

There was another early upset Wednesday: Tatiana Perebiynis of the Ukraine took out eighth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-3.

The No. 15 seed Patty Schnyder also moved into the third round with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the U.S. Open girls' singles champion two years ago.

In other early matches, No. 29 Sybille Bammer of Austria beat France's Aravane Rezai 6-1, 7-5; Ekaterina Makarova beat Ekaterina Bychkova 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in an all-Russian matchup; China's Li Na rallied past Sara Errani of Italy 4-6, 6-2, 6-0; and Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia defeated Austria's Tamira Paszek 6-1, 6-2.

Kuznetsova is one of six women battling it out for the world No. 1 ranking. The shock retirement in May of last year's U.S. Open champion, Justine Henin, has left a void at the top, with many observers bemoaning the weakened strength in the women's game.

Ivanovic, Jankovic, Serena Williams, Dementieva, Dinara Safina or Kuznetsova could take over as No. 1 by winning this year's U.S. Open, and Kuznetsova believes this competition is very heathy.

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"I was listening to the TV last night and they were saying that it's not good for tennis if there is not a clear leader and it's better to have, for example, Henin," Kuznetsova said.

"I don't know if I agree or not. For players it's different," she said. "To be player, you want to see yourself or somebody else to have always a [chance] to be No. 1, knowing that if you do a good job you can be there. But definitely it's a lot of nerves and we are all new.

"Generations change so quick and we are all like 23 and younger. Justine left so everybody wants it, but everybody is nervous. It's a bit of a funny situation, but I think it's interesting for everybody. Everybody learns so much from it," she said.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.