Venus Williams Given Fright
25 January 2010
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Venus Williams faced her first test of the 2010 Australian Open as she dropped the opening set to Francesca Schiavone.
And it looked like an upset was on the cards as the Italian broke Venus early in the second set but it wasn't to be as the former world number one put her foot on the gas.
But Venus won twelve of the next fourteen games to wrap up a 3-6 6-2 6-1 win and set up a quarter final clash with Li Na.
Li caused the upset of the day as she put out the seemingly in for fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki.
Wozniacki was 4-2 up in the opening set and looked to be cruising until Li took the next six games on the bounce to take the first set and the initiative in the second.
The trainer was called by Wozniacki for treatment on a thigh injury and she eventually stopped Li's run of games.
But it wasn't to be enough as Li served out the match to win 6-4 6-3 and set up a clash with Venus.
Defending champion Serena Williams has no problems in her match today as she blasted Sam Stosur off the Rod LAver Arena court in an hour.
The world number one, despite the heavy strapping to her leg, has looked in blistering form all week and this continued today with the loss of just six games.
Not even the support from the home crowd could lift Stosur as she had no answers for Serena's dominate and superior play.
She wrapped up a win 6-4 6-2 to set up a quarter final match with Victoria Azarenka.
Speaking to the BBC after her match Serena said: "I can't believe it - Sam beat me last time pretty convincingly, so I knew I had to do real good.
"I think my serve was pretty good. It's important when you're playing a local girl to not let the crowd get too involved or else they'll kill you."
Seventh seed Azarenka came from a set down in the evening session against Vera Zvonareva, a match which finished after midnight.
The opening set was a competitive affair as both women held their serves well. A single break was all it took and it was the Russian who truck first to take the opening set 6-4.
But Azarenka battled back in the second to level the match only to completely outplay Zvonareva, whose game completely disintegrated in the final set.
After two and a half hours on court Azarenka saw off Zvonareva 4-6 6-4 6-0 to meet Serena in the next round.
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