Sixth-seeded Danai, who beat Italian Uros Vico 6-4 6-4 in the first round, was on fire, dropping only two games to eliminate Australian Peter Luczak 6-0 6-2 in the second round of the men's division.

The Thai may have a tough task against top seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, who scored a 7-5 6-2 win over Italy's Simone Bolelli in the second round. Danai also won in the doubles event, teaming up with Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan to beat Britons Colin Fleming and Arvind Parmar 6-2 3-6 6-2.

On the women's side, Tamarine, seeded sixth, advanced to the second round when French opponent Stephanie Cohen-Aloro retired with an injury while trailing 2-6 6-2 3-1.

Tamarine has won her past three matches because her opponents sustained injuries. Two weeks ago she comfortably reached the quarter-finals in Washington as her ailing rivals withdrew.

Tamarine has lined up a second round clash with Luxembourg's Claudine Schaul, a 6-3 6-7(3-7) 7-6(7-0) winner over Peru's Vilmarie Castellvi.

In doubles, Napaporn Tongsalee and Indonesian veteran Romana Tedjakusuma upset second seeds Tatiana Perebynis of Ukraine and Milagros Sequera of Venezuela 6-7(6-8) 6-4 6-1.

Meanwhile, at the Tennis Academy of Asia, second seed Nick Lindahl from Australia yesterday beat South Korean Oh Seung-hoon 6-2 7-5 to advance to the semi-finals of the $US15,000 PTT-LTAT Bangkok Men's Futures Open event 5.

American fifth seed Jonathan Chu defeated South Korea's Kwon Hyung-tae 7-5 6-1. Seven seed Victor Kolik of Israel won over An Jae-sung from South Korea 6-4 3-6 6-3, while another South Korean Chung Hee-seok came from behind to beat Croatian Petar Jelenic 2-6 6-4 6-3.

Wildcards for Molik, 'Scud'

nFormer world No 8 women's player Alicia Molik and 1998 US Open finalist Mark Philippoussis will receive wildcard entries to Flushing Meadow this month.

Tennis Australia will recommend Molik and Philippoussis for wildcard entries to the US Open and expect the US Tennis Association to endorse its recommendation, the sporting body's communications manager John Lindsay said yesterday.

Molik was confirmed as Australia's female choice on Wednesday ahead of Nicole Pratt, who leads her countrywoman by more than 100 places on world ranking lists.

Tennis Australia did not consider using a play-off to determine the women's wildcard, as it did for the French Open earlier this year, Lindsay said. Molik has won only three matches - all in Grand Slam tournaments - since returning from injury in May, but Lindsay said Tennis Australia considered her the best choice for the wildcard spot.

"We did a play-off for the wildcard for the French Open, partly because we thought it would be beneficial to all the players to get the additional match practice on clay, and so we could find out how well Alicia was going," Lindsay said.

"Since then she has shown some good progress...and she has had some tight matches with top 100-ranked players.

"We took all that into account and thought the person that would benefit most from this would be Alicia, in terms of helping to further springboard her comeback," he said.

Philippoussis, as Australia's second-ranked male player, was an obvious choice for the men's wildcard, said Lindsay.