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News & Photos / Articles / Venus survives, Jankovic flies

	Venus survives, Jankovic flies Thursday, May 28, 2009 By Matthew Cronin

Share Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams may be known for her high-octane offence, but it was her steely defence that pulled her through in a remarkable 6-7(2) 6-2 7-5 victory over Czech Lucie Safarova on Thursday. Down 4-5 in the final set of a match that had been suspended for darkness the previous evening, Williams fought off a match point with a clean backhand winner down the line and from there, put up a wall from the baseline. While Williams can rip the ball off both wings and owns the world’s hardest women’s serve, Safarova matched her firepower inside the baseline, frequently wrong-footing her with forehand blasts and stepping gamely into her two-handed backhand. Despite her advancing age compared with many on the WTA circuit and her relative dislike of clay, Williams is still a fleet mover and ran sideline-to-sideline chasing down her foe’s blasts until she finally found an opening. She broke the lefty Czech to lead 6-5 with another edition of her money shot, a backhand down the line, and then coolly held on by playing consistent tennis to take the contest when a Safarova backhand hit the let cord and fell backward. Williams, a 2002 Roland Garros finalist, is not one of the hot favourites here but cannot be counted out of a maiden title run. While the third seed has not won a Slam off grass since 2001 when she went own her second consecutive US Open, she is a smart, experienced player who would love to add the Roland Garros title to her resume. She will face talented Hungarian Agnes Szavay in the next round. None of the other top seeds was pushed, with No5 Jelena Jankovic beating Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-1 6-2, No7 Svetlana Kuznetsova overcoming Galina Voskoboeva 6-0 6-2 and No10 Caroline Wozniacki besting American Jill Craybas 6-1 6-4. Spain’s Lourdes Dominguez Lino took out American Fed Cup heroine Alexa Glatch 7-6(0) 7-5, leaving only the Williams sisters left flying the US flag in the women’s draw. North American neighbour Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada however is through to the third round, cruising past Petra Martic of Croatia 6-3 6-3.