time defending champion Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick are among eight Grand Slam winners leading the men's field for the US Open. All top 100 men in the rankings received direct entry on Wednesday into the hard-court tournament, played from Aug. 31 to Sept. 13 in New York. Federer will be trying to become the first man since Bill Tilden in the 1920s to win the American Grand Slam tournament six consecutive times. Other past US Open champions on the entry list are Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt, while Novak Djokovic, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya also have won major titles. In addition to the total of 104 men who received direct entry into the field based on Monday's rankings, eight will get wild cards and 16 will earn berths in Aug. 25-28 qualifying. The women's field is to be announced on Thursday. The winners of the US Open men's and women's singles title will each receive a record $1.6 million. Soderling, Chardy advance Robin Soderling and Jeremy Chardy extended their winning streaks on clay Wednesday to advance to the third round of the German Open. Soderling was taken to three sets before outlasting Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3. Chardy fired 21 aces to prevail over Andreas Beck of Germany 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6). Second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia swept past Philipp Petzschner of Germany 6-3, 6-2 and No. 6 David Ferrer of Spain beat another German, Florian Mayer, 6-3, 6-2. Victor Hanescu, the 11th-seeded Romanian who lost the Stuttgart final to Chardy, advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic. Davydenko's Russian compatriot Igor Andreev, the seventh seed, suffered an early exit after a 6-4, 6-3 defeat by France's Julien Benneteau. Safina in Slovenia quarters In Slovenia, top-ranked Dinara Safina cruised into the quarterfinals of the Slovenia Open on Wednesday by routing Ksenia Pervak 6-1, 6-2. Safina needed just 1 hour, 17 minutes to oust the 18-year-old Pervak, a fellow Russian. She will face Italy's Maria Elena Camerin in quarterfinals on Friday. Camerin beat Russian Vera Dushevina 4-6, 7-5, 6-0. Sixth-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic was upset by Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. Voegele will next meet Rossana De Los Rios of Paraguay after she beat Italy's Roberta Vinci 6-3 6-4.. Tursunov advances at Indy Top-seeded Dmitry Tursunov opened his account at the Indianapolis Championships by defeating Michael Berrer of Germany 6-3, 2-6, 6-0 on Tuesday. Tursunov, the runner-up here a year ago and winner at Indianapolis in 2007, returned to action after a 2-1/2-week layoff. Second-seeded Dudi Sela of Israel, fourth-seeded Igor Kunitsyn of Russia and fifth-seeded Benjamin Becker of Germany also advanced. Sela beat American Vincent Spadea 7-5, 6-1. Sela, who began 2009 ranked No. 105, has won 17 matches against 13 losses this season with a current career-high ranking of No. 29. Kunitsyn beat Brian Dabul of Argentina 6-4, 6-1, Becker beat Go Soeda of Japan 6-2, 6-3, and Argentinian Eduardo Schwank upset No. 6 seed Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Tursunov next will play the winner of Wednesday's first-round match between American Taylor Dent and Marcos Daniel of Brazil.
