Venus Williams Vanquishes Date-Krumm To Advance To Third Round
By James Waterson
Photo Credit: LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images
(June 22, 2011) Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams survived a tough test in 40-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan, prevailing 6-7 (6), 6-3, 8-6 in the second round Wednesday.
Williams started slow, falling to a 5-1 deficit before earning two breaks of serve and leveling the set at 5-5. Both players held to force a tiebreaker, in which Date-Krumm raced to a 6-2 lead.
The 31-year-old Williams fought off four set points, only to drop the next two and the set.
Both players held to start the second set, but a poor volley from Date-Krumm on break point gave Venus the crucial advantage.
Unlike the first set, in which Williams won 37 percent of points on her serve, the American had a much easier time holding serve, winning 70 percent of her service points.
After closing out the second set, Williams broke once again to gain a 2-0 lead. Date-Krumm immediately broke back when Williams double faulted on break point.
In the next game, Date-Krumm held after fighting off six break points, and both players would hold until 6-7.
Until the last game, Date-Krumm played some excellent grass-court tennis by taking her opponent’s shots early and following her flat groundstrokes into the net.
Serving at 6-7, she had 14 winners to seven unforced errors, but two unforced errors gave Williams a 30-love lead. Date-Krumm earned one point back and then sprayed a mid-court forehand several feet behind the baseline, giving Williams two match points.
At 15-40, Williams hit a forehand approach that forced Date-Krumm into narrowly missing a down the line backhand passing shot, giving her the win after almost three hours.
Next up for the elder Williams sister is the 76th-ranked Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain. Martinez Sanchez beat Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-3, 6-0 shortly after William’s match finished.
Tsvetana Pironkova joined Williams and Martinez Sanchez in the third round after she dominated Petra Martic of Croatia 6-3, 6-0.
Williams won their sole encounter at the 2008 Wimbledon in straight sets.
Meanwhile, in some of the day's first-round matches, 13th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland advanced after her opponent, Olga Govortsova of Belarus, retired at 6-3, 3-0, Andrea Hlavackova defeated Anastasia Rodionova of Australia 6-1, 6-2 and 16th-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany dismissed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-3, 6-0.
Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova, the 27th seed, beat Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine 7-5, 6-3 to advance into the second round.
Sabine Lisicki of Germany dominated Anastasija Sevatsova of Latvia 6-1, 6-1, and she will face French Open champion Li Na in the second round.