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| April 05, 2007 | Thursday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 16, 1428 |
Venus breezes into second round
AMELIA ISLAND (Florida), April 4: Venus Williams, who is looking to re-establish herself as a dominant player on the WTA Tour, cruised to an easy first-round win on Tuesday at the 600,000 WTA Amelia Island tournament.
A five-time Grand Slam champion, Venus ended a drought of nearly two years with her victory at Memphis earlier this season. But she was beaten by Maria Sharapova in the third round at Miami last month.
The winner at Miami was Serena Williams, who also won the Australian Open and has rediscovered the form that makes her the most overwhelming player in the sport.
A victory in this tier two claycourt event would help Venus reclaim her spot as one of the top players on tour. In the draw as an unseeded player, the 2002 champion took a step toward that goal with a 6-1, 6-2 trouncing of Aravane Rezai of France.
Next up for Venus is fourth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, against whom she is 8-0 in her career.
The top eight seeds had first-round byes. Three were in action on Tuesday, including top seed and defending champion Nadia Petrova of Russia, who routed Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, 6-4, 6-0. Ranked seventh in the world, Petrova won in Paris earlier this season. A year ago, she won her last nine sets to claim the title here, beating Italy's Francesca Schiavone in the final.
Petrova's next foe will be No. 15 Jie Zheng of China, who breezed past Italian Mara Santangelo, 6-3, 6-3.
Third seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, who won the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells, trounced Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain, 6-1, 6-3. She will face wild card Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, who eliminated Vera Dushevina of Russia, 6-1, 6-3.
Results(x denotes seeding):
Second round: Nadia Petrova (RUS x1) bt Kaia Kanepi (EST) 6-4, 6-0; Dinara Safina (RUS x5) bt Michaella Krajicek (NED) 6-4, 7-5; Katarina Srebotnik (SLO x11) bt Julia Vakulenko (UKR) 2-6, 6-3, 6-2; Zheng Jie (CHN x15) bt Mara Santangelo (ITA) 6-3, 6-3; Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) bt Vera Dushevina (RUS) 6-1, 6-3; Daniela Hantuchova (SVK x3) bt Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP) 6-1, 6-3.
First round
Venus Williams (US) bt Aravane Rezai (FRA) 6-1, 6-2; Samantha Stosur (AUS x12) bt Virginia Ruano Pascual (ESP) 7-5, 6-1; Romina Oprandi (ITA) bt Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 6-1, 6-1; Peng Shuai (CHN) bt Eva Birnerova (CZE) 6-2, 6-1; Nathalie Dechy (FRA) bt Aiko Nakamura (JPN) 6-2, 6-1; Iveta Benesova (CZE) bt Akiko Morigami (JPN) 6-1, 7-6 (7/4). —AFP
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