AMELIA ISLAND (Florida), April 5: Venus Williams continued her quest back to the top of women's tennis on Wednesday, upsetting fourth seed Patty Schnyder to reach the third round of the Amelia Island championship.

The 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win improves Williams's record over the Swiss world No 16 to 9-0.

Former world No 1 Williams, now ranked 32nd, will face Meilen Tu next in a match which will leave just one American player in the tournament.

In other action, second seed Jelena Jankovic blew past Czech Iveta Benesova 6-1, 6-2 in 55 minutes. Also moving on were No 8 seed Tatiana Golovin, No 12 Samantha Stosur, No 13 Sybille Bammer and No 16 Alona Bondarenko.

Williams showed great spirit in her match with Schnyder.

In the decisive set, the Swiss took an early lead by breaking Williams in the fourth game for a 3-1 lead. But Williams, who as a late entry into the tournament was not seeded, broke right back, winning to love.

Two games later, Williams added another break when Schnyder double faulted in succession and then put a ball into the net followed by one that sailed over the baseline. Williams let out an emphatic ‘yes’ as the ball hit a foot beyond the line.

Wednesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Second round: 6-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia and Montenegro) beat Peng Shuai (China) 1-6, 6-4, 6-3; Venus Williams (US) beat 4-Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; 16-Alona Bondarenko (Ukraine) beat Yaroslava Shvedova (Russia) 5-7, 6-3, 6-2; 2-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia and Montenegro) beat Iveta Benesova (Czech Republic) 6-1, 6-2; 8-Tatiana Golovin (France) beat Catalina Castano (Colombia) 6-0, 6-3; 12-Samantha Stosur (Australia) beat Romina Oprandi (Italy) 7-6 (8-6), 6-2; Meilen Tu (US) beat 17-Martina Mueller (Germany) 6-3, 6-1; Nathalie Dechy (France) beat Eleni Daniilidou (Greece) 6-3, 6-4; 13-Sybille Bammer (Austria) beat Virginie Razzano (France) 6-1, 6-1; Karolina Sprem (Croatia) beat 7-Li Na (China) 6-3, 6-3.—Reuters