MELBOURNE, Australia -- Top-ranked Lleyton Hewitt has two victories to his credit at the Australian Open and wants five more to go with them.

	James Blake reached the third round in his best-ever performance at the Aussie.

Top seed Hewitt rebounded from a tough five-setter against Sweden's Magnus Larsson in the first round to thrash Australian journeyman Todd Larkham 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 in a second-round match Thursday.

In the first set, Hewitt dropped only two points on serve, both double faults.

Ranked 234 places behind Hewitt, Larkham won his opening service game to level at 1-1 before losing the next 13. He raised his arms in mock jubilation when he won on serve in the third game of the third.

Larkham won their last encounter, beating a 15-year-old Hewitt 6-0, 6-4 in 1996.

Hewitt hadn't planned to "rub it in" so much.

"That was a long time ago and a lot of things have happened since then," he said. Hewitt was not around for the second round last year. Slowed by the chickenpox, he lost in the first round.

In other second-round matches Thursday, Czech Radek Stepanek, who climbed 484 places to No. 63 in the rankings last year, beat three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

Kuerten, seeded 30th and a former No. 1, had been seeded to meet Hewitt in the third round. Instead, he extended his record of never advancing beyond the second round in Australia.

"Normally it is like this," the Brazilian said. "It wasn't a match I played bad, just a couple of shots and the result could've been different."

Third-seeded Marat Safin, the 2000 U.S. Open champion and losing Australian finalist last year, beat France's Albert Montanes 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, and No. 6 Roger Federer defeated Germany's Lars Burgsmuller 6-3, 6-0, 6-3.

American Andy Roddick overpowered Romania's Adrian Voinea 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, and Spain's Alberto Martin ousted 13th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (4).

After three hours and 34 minutes, seventh-seeded Jiri Novak, a semifinalist last year, edged Belgium's Olivier Rochus 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), 4-6, 4-6, 6-3.

Safin, the runner-up in Melbourne last year, continued his return to fitness after pulling out of last week's Sydney International with a shoulder injury and did enough to muscle his way into the third round.

Safin next plays Rainer Schuettler, from Germany, who knocked out former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.

Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian, seeded 10th, beat Australian qualifier Jaymon Crabb 6-1, 7-6 (10), 6-3, No. 18 Younes El Aynaoui defeated Uzbek qualifier Vadim Kutsenko 6-2, 6-1, 6-4, and No. 20 Xavier Malisse beat France's Anthony Dupuis 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-5.

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