By Erik Gudris

Venus Williams Reaches the Third Round of the 2012 London Olympics

(July 30, 2012) -- Venus Williams continued to display the kind of vintage tennis that took her to five Wimbledon titles while Maria Sharapova was forced to battle the hopes of Great Britain on day four of women's action at the Olympics. Williams, who faced Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak first up on Centre Court had little trouble as the American hit 32 winners and closed out the match with her fifth ace to seal a 61, 6-3 victory in just over an hour. Next up for Williams will be Germany's Angelique Kerber who dismissed Hungary's Timea Babos 6-1, 6-1.

No. 3 seed Maria Sharapova must have felt like she was taking on all of Great Britain as she faced young British hope Laura Robson. With the partisan crowd chanting out "Laura!, Laura!", Sharapova found herself battling in a tight first set that led into an equally tight tiebreak that the Russian finally won. After breaking Robson early in the second set, Sharapova earned herself some breathing room to eventually carve out a 7-6(5), 6-3 win.

Awaiting Sharapova next will be the woman who ousted her from Wimbledon a few weeks ago in Germany's Sabine Lisicki who survived a match point against her to edge out a tough 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Yaroslava Shvedova.

Other results on the day saw Russia's Nadia Petrova beat Georgia's Anna Tatishvili 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 while Germany's Julia Goerges continued her surprise run with a 6-3, 7-5 win over American Varvara Lepchenko.

In women's doubles results, No. 1 seeds Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond entered the third round with a 6-4, 7-6 win over the Radwanska sisters from Poland.

(Photo Credit: Reuters)