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| Serena Williams of the US
acknowledges the audience after beating Russia's Dinara Safina
during the second round of the China Open tennis tournament in
Beijing September 22,
2004. (Reuters) |
Six-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams woke up late Wednesday,
outlasting Russian Dinara
Safina in a three set tussle 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the second round of China
Open at the Beijing Tennis Centre.
The top seed trailed 1-3 in the third set before exploding for five
consecutive games. She was helped along by Safina's double faults and
unforced errors in the last minute.
Third seed Maria Sharapova took a much more easier step into the next
round with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over fellow Russian Tatiana Panova.
Sixth seed Gisela Dulko of Argentina, who played her second round match
under the shadow of those glittering big names, continued her charge
smoothly, beating Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela 6-4, 6-4.
The 19-year-old, who enjoyed best victory of her career by upsetting
2004 French Open and US Open finalist Elena Dementieva in straight sets at
August's Canadian Open, could meet the new US Open champion and second
seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia. Kuznetsova will play China's qualifier
Li Na in Thursday's second round.
Following Dulko is another low-profile winner Anabel Medina Garrigues
of Spain, who also clinched a last eight spot after a 6-4, 6-4 victory
over Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn.
Serena, a former world No 1, is chasing her second title of the year.
She started her debut with powerful serves and returns to take the first
set. But she soon fell to the ground after suffering an opening serve
break in the second game and then in the fourth game, handing Safina the
chance to battle back 6-3.
"I didn't feel good in the middle of the match," said Williams, "I tell
myself to stay calm and I think I did better this time." Williams soon
left her sluggish second set behind and rebounded at the right time to
clinch the winning set.
 Wimbledon Open winner Sharapova was dominant right into the first
set, making use of her strong forehand and backhand returns and won her
first two serves without losing a point. She then broke her opponent in
the fourth game and led 4-1 after winning her serve.
Panova failed to put up any
resistance and lost the next two games in a set that lasted only 22
minutes. The glamorous fan favourite continued to show beautiful skills
and returns in the second, winning most of the cheers from spectators.
Enjoying a 4-1 lead again after breaking Panova twice, Sharapova
completed a one-sided victory with a superb lop return. Jubilant Sharapova
celebrated her second-round victory by blowing her kisses to the stands.
"I am so excited to play on centre court today," the 17-year-old said,
"This is a good start for my tournament and everything is going very
well."
Sharapova meets seventh seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro
in the quarter-finals and is likely to meet Kuznetsova in the semis.
In the remaining two first round matches, both seeded players cruised
into the next round.
China's top player Zheng Jie was no match for fifth seed Nadia Petrova
of Russia and lost to the US Open quarter-finalist 6-2, 6-2.
Jankovic later joined Petrova by edging past Shinobu Asagoe of Japan
4-6, 6-2, 7-6.
"This is the second time I met her in a month," Zheng Jie said. "She
has a superb serve and baseline stroke, so I made some special preparation
before the match, but she really displayed a good performance and
dominated the court."
Russian powerstroker broke Zheng's all four serve games and won the
first set with an ace. Zheng rebounded a little bit in the second set and
saved four breakpoints, but she was not strong enough to fight back,
losing the second set 6-2 to Petrova.
Chinese fans got some comfort in the doubles as Athens Olympic gold
medallists Li Ting/Sun Tiantian got off to a good start on home soil after
crushing Janet Lee of Chinese Taipei and Jennifer Hopkins of USA 6-2, 6-2.
(China Daily) | 
Updated: 2004-09-23 09:26