Thursday, January 17, 2008
She struggled past Camille Pin to reach the third round of the Australian Open.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Venus Williams did not want to risk going three sets in the second round of the Australian Open.
Down a break of serve in the second set, the eighth-ranked Williams rallied to get back to 4-4 and won the last two games, ending a 7-5, 6-4 victory Thursday over Camille Pin on her second match point at Melbourne Park.
Pin has never been beyond the second round in 19 majors but Williams would have been aware of the 26-year-old Frenchwoman’s never-say-die approach if she tracked Maria Sharapova’s path to the final last year.
Pin rallied from 5-0 down in the third set and had a chance to serve for the match at 7-6 before eventually losing 9-7 in the first round last year against the then top-seeded Sharapova.
Sharapova progressed to the final before losing to Venus’ sister, Serena Williams.
Venus Williams didn’t help herself with six double faults and 44 unforced errors as she tried to push Pin around the court.
“She was very good. She brings a lot of ball back,” said Williams, who missed the Australian Open last year because of a left wrist injury.
Second-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova was desperate to win the first set for her own reasons against Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.
The former U.S. Open champion has never won a match at the Australian Open after conceding the first set.
And she had her difficulties in a 7-6 (0), 6-2 win.
“It was really hard. She played really well. I didn’t do my job well in the first set,” Kuznetsova said. “A Grand Slam is seven different matches, some days you don’t feel good.”
“I was trying to stay in the game, was 100 percent focussed on that but sometimes it just wasn’t going my way. I’m sure I’ll play better next time.”
Kuznetsova was down 3-0 and then 5-2 before breaking Pironkova’s serve to start a four-game winning stretch that ended when she wasted her chance to serve for the first set at 6-5.
But Kuznetsova, the losing finalist at the last U.S. Open, handled the pressure better and ran off seven straight points, getting a 4-0 buffer when Pironkova double-faulted for only the second time in the match.
Kuznetsova dominated the second set, getting the decisive break in the sixth game.
Wednesday night, Sharapova looked up and spotted a 7-month-old kid staring her down.
“I thought I saw her little kid giving me dirty looks,” Sharapova said.
The boy, Jagger, was courtside. His mom, Lindsay Davenport, winner of three Grand Slam titles and with a 19-1 record since returning to the tour, was across the net.
“Tell you the truth, I approached it like it’s a final,” said Sharapova, straying from her ’one-match-at-a-time’ mantra.
“Ever since I took a peek at the draw and saw that Lindsay was second round.”
Davenport was only five tournaments into a comeback after giving birth to Jagger last June.
Still, Sharapova was preparing for a matchup worthy of the second week of a major.
“You probably don’t get to see too many second rounds where you see two Grand Slams champions, former No. 1s playing against each other,” she said.
“The buildup to the match, the excitement, the showtime — I love that. As an athlete, that’s what you play for.”
And that’s probably what brought Davenport back.
“It was fun. The crowd was great. I wish I could’ve given them a little more to cheer for,” the 31-year-old Californian said. “The key was starting off well, and I really didn’t do that.”
Sharapova never faced a break point.
She broke for the fourth time when Davenport netted a forehand on second match point.
“I’m disappointed with the way this match went and this tournament went, but I have to look big picture at this point in my career,” Davenport said.
“So far it’s gone pretty well the last few months.”