Thursday, May 28, 2009

Venus digs deep to make progress

FRENCH OPEN
Venue: Roland Garros Date: 24 May - 7 June
Coverage: Live on BBC Red Button, live streaming and daily text commentary on BBC Sport website, updates on BBC Radio 5 Live plus second week commentary on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra. TV coverage on Eurosport.

Venus Williams
Williams was a set down when play was suspended on Wednesday

Third seed Venus Williams survived an epic battle with world number 46 Lucie Safarova, fighting back from a set down to reach the French Open third round.

The 22-year-old Czech won the first set before play stopped late on Wednesday.

Williams fought back strongly to level when the match resumed but had to save a match-point at 4-5 in the decider on her way to a 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 7-5 victory.

Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova all won easily, dropping only seven games between them.

Spanish veteran Virginia Ruano Pascual was blown away by Serena, losing 6-2 6-0, and the second seed will play Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in round three.

Former world number one Jankovic, seeded fifth, was not always at her best against Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova but still managed a convincing 6-1 6-2 win.

It was close but these kind of matches are really rewarding and I think I deserved to win it in the end

Venus Williams

Jankovic, a semi-finalist here in 2007 and 2008, feels she is on her way to regaining the form that saw her top the women's rankings at the start of the year.

"I think I'm coming back," said Jankovic, "This is the most important thing for me, especially when you saw me playing a few months ago. It was really disastrous."

Seventh seed Kuznetsova was even more impressive as she crushed Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 6-0, 6-2.

The Russian put on an superb display of attacking tennis to win in 49 minutes.

Serbian star Jankovic will play Jarmila Groth of Australia for a place in the last 16.

Next up for Kuznetsova is Hungary's Melinda Czink, while Venus will play Agnes Szavay of Hungary.

The American admitted the interruption to her match helped her and held up Safarova, who was on top when darkness fell on Wednesday.

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"She was just going for every shot and making them, but the delay gave me time to think about things differently," Venus said.

"It was close but these kind of matches are really rewarding and I think I deserved to win it in the end."

Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki is also through after beating Jill Craybas 6-1 6-4.

But 13th seed Marion Bartoli is out after losing her second-round match to Italy's Tathiana Garbin 6-3 7-5.

Bartoli gave several reasons for her defeat, saying: "I was a little tired and a little sick, I had a sore throat and my nose is running.

"It was very cold and the court was heavy. The ball was stuck on the strings and it was very slow."

The other Williams sister, Serena, is also in action later on Thursday against veteran Spanish star Virginia Ruano Pascual.

ะพ 3:16 AM

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