Venus joins sister in next round

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:14

While Serena had a relatively comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory against China’s

Yuan Meng, Venus was made to work hard for her 6-3 6-3 win against the German in the Hisense Arena.

It had looked like the match, played in sweltering conditions, would be something of a cakewalk for the elder Williams who raced out to a 5-0 lead in the opening set.

But the German, making her second appearance in Melbourne, fought back, mixing up her game well, and received a huge cheer when she finally held serve to get her first game on the board.

The crowd clearly inspired her as she broke Williams in the next game then saved several set points before an overhead smash got her back to 5-3.

Williams, in her 10th appearance at the Australian Open, though made no mistake on her own serve, firing down an ace to seal the opening set.

Both players appeared to struggle with the sun at times on their serve, though there was some welcome shade covering part of the court during the second set.

The German, clearly buoyed by her efforts in the latter stages of the first set, had Williams rattled early in the second.

After a lucky net cord helped her hold serve, the unseeded Kerber capitalised on a growing number of Williams errors to take a 3-1 lead. But it was short-lived as the American sixth seed broke back immediately to make it 3-2 and from there she won the next four games to seal the win.

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