TNT Sports
Family reunion
By
Published 02/09/2005 at 23:31 GMT+1
Serena Williams looked below-par in her 6-3 6-4 victory over Italian Francesca Schiavone on Friday, to set up a fourth-round showdown with her elder sister and Wimbledon champion Venus at the U.S. Open. The champion of 1999 and 2002 struggled past Schiavo
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World number 27 Schiavone, who beat Serena 7-6 (7-2) 6-1 at the Rome Open prior to Roland Garros in May, made the 24-year-old American work hard for her last 16 berth.
However, Serena's weight of shot always gave her the advantage and she hammered a backhand winner to clinch victory on her third match point.
"I'm feeling actually the best I've felt in a really long time," Serena, who has struggled since with an ankle injury since winning the Australian Open in January.
"I wish I could have gotten those drop shots. I just couldn't get them. Next time."
"It was really important for me to stay focused right there and just do what I do best," she added.
Hantuchova managed to win only six games against Venus.
An immediate break provided Williams with an early cushion.
In her first servicegame Williams encountered a lot of problems, with Hantuchova getting a total of 6 breakpoints.
She failed to convert any of them in a combination of her own errors and good serving by Williams.
Both players then held on to serve untill 3-1 and when Williams received another breakpoint, some good serving by Hantuchova helped her back to 3-2.
In the following Williams-servicegame she played some sloppy points, leading to 3 breakpoints for Hantuchova.
Williams prevented the first 2 breakpoints with some excellent serves and the 3rd breakpoint with an excellent forehand down the line.
Hantuchova in turn then clobbered a nice backhand down the line to grab her 4th breakpoint.
A sloppy error by Williams gave Hantuchova the break, moving the scoreboard to 3-3.
Hantuchova didn't manage to back up her break, as she played a poor game, gifting her service straight back to Williams.
Williams then held on to her servicegame and with a lovely passing shot she also grabbed the set: 6-3.
In the second set Williams again grabbed an early break at 1-0 up, doing so with an excellent forehand.
After that it was smooth sailing for both players in their respective servicegames, moving to 5-3 for Williams.
With more excellent serving she managed to grab herself 3 matchpoints.
The first matchpoint was thwarted by a lovely Hantuchova lob.
The lob proved to be her final highlight in this match, as she made an error on the following point to hand the match to Williams.
All in all it was a very good performance by Venus Williams, who seems very much ready for a clash with her sister Serena.
This match is already, undoubtedly, the biggest clash of the 4th round.
CLIJSTERS CONTINUES
Fourth seed Kim Clijsters, winner of five north-American hard court titles this season, stormed past 30th seed Ai Sugiyama 6-1 6-4 breaking the Japanese five times.
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