Venus Sets on Mirza at WTA Stanford

"Mirza played well," said Williams after dropping seven aces on India's version of Maria Sharapova. "She moves very well and has good groundstokes. I was surprised with how well I played in my first match after Wimbledon."

Mirza was broken four times on serve, but enjoyed a great deal of Indian and Asian support amongst the sold-out Stanford crowd.

"It was a good match and much closer than the score suggests," Mirza said. "She played better on the important points, especially on game points that I had. That's why she won Wimbledon -- because she plays the important points very well...It was great, thankfully, there are Indians everywhere I go."

There were no upsets in the remaining three matches played earlier in the day with winners (3) Patty Schnyder (d. Bartoli), (6) Nathalie Dechy (d. Raymond from a set down), and (7) Jelena Jankovic (d. Amy "Down Goes" Frazier, bagel in the first).

Scheduled for Thursday on the hardcourts are Schiavone vs. Benesova, Hantuchova vs. Shaughnessy, Davenport vs. Groenefeld, and old doubles partners facing off in Clijsters vs. Sugiyama.