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Serena Tumbles as Seeds Fall on Day Two at AO

Serena Williams survived a scary fall in her opening match but went on to win without dropping a game. Several seeds fell as American women shined on Day Two.

By Erik Gudris

Serena Williams - 2013 Australian Open (January 15th, 2013) -- Serena Williams didn't drop a single game in her opening match at the 2013 Australian Open, But her victory -- which keeps her on track as the tournament odds favorite -- was anything but easy as she survived a nasty fall on Day 2 of play in Melbourne.

Facing Romania's Edina Gallovits-Hall, Williams held a comfortable 4-0 lead in the first set. But when Williams chased after a wide shot, her feet slid on the Plexicushion court of Hisense Arena causing her to roll her right ankle, resulting in widespread concern.

After lying on court for a few minutes in obvious pain, Williams stood up and walked to her chair eventually taking a medical time out to have the ankle retaped.

The injury scare didn't put a stop in her momentum during the match though. When she returned to the court, Williams blasted winners from all sides, 18 in all, to close out a 6-0, 6-0 win in just under an hour.

Williams in her post match press conference said she would assess the ankle, especially with regards to her upcoming doubles match with sister Venus Williams, but she had not plans to withdraw from the tournament.

"Oh, I'll be out there.  I mean, unless something fatal happens to me, there's no way I'm not going to be competing. I'm alive. My heart's beating. I'll be fine."Williams said.


Azarenka, Kvitova, Wozniacki Advance as Seeds Fall

Top women's seed and defending champion Victoria Azarenka had a tougher than expected match against another Romanian in Monica Niculescu. Despite taking the first set in easy fashion, Azarenka struggled with Niculescu's unorthodox slice groundstrokes and fell behind 0-3 in the second set.

But Azarenka found her range late in the set and eventually moved ahead to close out a 6-1, 6-4 win.

"She's unusual and she tries to make you feel a little bit, you know, miserable on the court, like you don't know what to do, because every ball comes from different angles," Azarenka said of Niculescu. "It was important to just keep focused and be aggressive"

A pair of anticipated opening round matches went the distance as No. 8 seed Petra Kvitova got past veteran Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 while No. 10 seed Caroline Wozniacki fought back from being 0-3 down in the final set to Sabine Lisicki before the German, on the basis of 57 total unforced errors, lost her edge and gave the former No. 1 a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 win.

Multiple seeded players fell in opening round action including No. 7 seed Sara Errani, No. 12 seed Nadia Petrova, No. 24 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, No. 28 seed Yaroslava Shvedova and No. 31 seed Urzsula Radwanska to American Jamie Hampton.

Hampton was among several American women who reached the second round including No. 21 seed Varvara Lepchenko and No. 29 seed Sloane Stephens.

(Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve)


 

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