Published>Mon, May 10 10 10:27 PM
A pumped-up Serena Williams drew on all her battling qualities to get past Vera Dushevina into the third round of the Madrid Open on Monday, coming back from a set down and saving a match point for a 6-7 7-6 7-6 success.
The American world number one, who won her 12th grand slam title at January's Australian Open before injury sidelined her for three months, looked to be on her way out of the clay event when the unseeded Russian held a match point at 6-5 in the second set.
Berating herself and appealing to watching coach and father Richard Williams throughout the match, she clawed her way back and took the deciding set despite having a long treatment break for what appeared to be right thigh and lower back problems.
She squandered one match point with a wild backhand at 6-4 in the third-set tiebreak, but a ninth ace on the next point prompted a bellow of delight from the pink-clad 28-year-old after almost three and a half hours of play.
"When I shout like that it's just to get energised," Williams, who is on course to meet Russian sixth seed Elena Dementieva in the last eight, said at a news conference.
"I really try to get myself going. I need energy and I need emotion to help me play better."
Williams, who had a bye into the second round, avoided the fate of three other grand slam champions, Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova, who all lost their opening matches to exit in the first round.
NOT SERIOUS
"I definitely wasn't playing my best tennis and I was far off from playing well but after three hours I thought I had better win," said Williams, who will be bidding for a second French Open crown in Paris starting this month.
"I really wanted to win today because I really wanted to get some matches under my belt," she added.
Without giving further details, she said she hoped her injury was not serious but she had not yet had time to get it checked out.
Third seed Dinara Safina and Serena's sister, fourth seed Venus Williams, are in action later on Monday.
In first round matches, eighth-seeded Australian Samantha Stosur edged past Argentine Gisela Dulko 7-6 7-5 and 16th seed Nadia Petrova beat Russian compatriot Elena Vesnina 4-6 6-2 6-3.
Source: Web Search
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