Venus came up with the winners when it mattered most to post a hard-fought 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2 win over Shuai Peng in the second round of the $600,000 Canara Bank Bangalore Open at the KSLTA courts here on Thursday evening.
For the most part, Venus Williams' game oscillated between the brilliant and the mediocre. Fortunately for the reigning Wimbledon champion, she had only Shuai Peng across the net and not someone with big weapons who could have made capital of her largesse.
But then, Venus came up with the winners when it mattered most to post a hard-fought 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2 win in the second round of the $600,000 Canara Bank Bangalore Open at the KSLTA courts here on Thursday evening.
The three-set win earned the second seed a quarterfinal meeting with the dangerous Vera Zvonareva. The Russian, with a final appearance at Doha last month, overcame early blues to score a 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 win over Romanian Agnes Szatmari earlier in the day.
Demolition
Top-seeded Jelena Jankovic walked in a few minutes after Venus walked off. The world No 3 then spent a little over an hour in her 6-2, 6-2 demolition of Sanda Mamic of Croatia.
But the evening was all about Venus, rather her serve. One of the biggest servers in women's tennis for some years now, the 27-year-old served big alright, but the amazing number of double faults she served took everyone by surprise. She served 15 in all.
"I can serve a lot better than I did today but the good thing is that I have finished the match and it is behind me now," Venus remarked.
"I always love to close out the match in two sets but it went to three. Everybody makes mistakes," Venus said.
After starting off with three straight errors, much like her sister Serena the previous day, Venus regrouped quickly to take charge of the proceedings against an opponent who kept retrieving everything thrown at her.
With wheels for feet, that was Peng's main weapon on the day. The Chinese girl did hit a couple of winners, but it was her staying power that had Venus in a spot.
After the early hiccup, Venus stepped on the gas and hit some amazing winners. The crowd, small though, loved it. With breaks in the fifth and seventh games, Venus closed out the first set with a minimum of fuss. But she served three double faults in the fourth game of the second set to drop serve. She kept shaking her head in disbelief. So did Serena in the stands.
Brilliant returns
But the six-time Grand Slam champion made amends with three brilliant returns of serve to break right back. But Peng hung in there to push the set into a tie-break. Venus came out firing and even had two match points, but she squandered both. The first with a double fault and then hit a backhand wide.
Peng was not complaining. The Chinese girl then ran Venus ragged – flank to flank -- before unleashing a backhand down the line winner to go 7-6 up in the tie-break. A Venus double fault gave her the set and some hope in the decider. But they were quickly squashed when she dropped serve in the second game.
Though Peng broke back in the fifth, thanks to a poor call on a Venus ace, she didn't look like pushing the Wimbledon champion. Venus upped her game a few notches to break in the seventh and closed out the match when the Chinese girl put a backhand wide.
Her opponent in the next round, Zovonareva, too struggled with her serve. The world No 21, a former top-10 player, relied on her ground strokes to get out of trouble. "I could have played better. I didn't serve too well. I was probably trying too hard," said Zvonareva.
Results:
Singles (II round): Zi Yan (Chn) bt Olga Savchuk (Ukr) 6-2, 6-1; Vera Zvonareva (Rus) bt Agnes Szatmari (Rom) 7-6 (7-5), 6-1; Venus Williams (US) bt Shuai Peng (Chn) 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2; Jelena Jankovic (Srb) bt Sanda Mamic (Cro) 6-2, 6-2.
ACTION TODAY
Centre Court: 12.00 noon: Patty Schnyder (Sui) vs Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb); Not before 2.00 pm: Vera Zvonareva (Rus) vs Venus Williams (US); Not before 5.00 pm: Anastasia Rodionova (Rus) vs Serena Williams (US); Jelena Jankovic (Srb) vs Zi Yan (Chn); Yung-Jan Chan/ Chia-Jung Chuang (Tpe) vs Ekaterina Dzehalevich (Blr)/ Monica Niculescu (Rom).
