No. 2 seed
Venus Williams advanced into the third round, not without some difficulty, on the claycourts Wednesday at the Family Circle Cup in
Charleston.
The elder Williams sister won the first set handily but then struggled, eventually subduing India's
Sania Mirza 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.
In the second set Williams converted on only one of 11 breaks points, and was herself broken twice.
Two other Americans moved into the third round Wednesday, with qualifier
Melanie Oudin rolling No. 9-seeded Canadian
Aleksandra Wozniak 7-5, 6-0, and
Varvara Lepchenko beating fellow American and qualifier
Shenay Perry 6-2, 6-3.
In other upsets Russian
Elena Vesnina outlasted No. 8 seed
Patty Schnyder 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5; the Ukraine's
Viktoriya Kutuzova beat No. 11
Alona Bondarenko 6-4, 7-5; and Russian
Anastasia Rodionova ousted No. 12
Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-2, 6-4.
Other winners were No. 10 seed Peng Shuai, No. 13
Virginie Razzano, No. 16
Sabine Lisicki, and unseeded Hungarian Melinda "The Fifth Element" Czink.
The night match Wednesday in Charleston featured last week's
Ponte Vedra Beach winner,
Caroline Wozniacki, against Russian
Alla Kudryavtseva.
