By Nick Georgandis
TennisNow.com
@ Mark Peterson/ Corleve

Venus Williams showed a chink in the armor Wednesday night in the Australian Open's second round. She also showed how she bounces back from a loss.

After Sandra Zahalvova took the first set from the fourth-seeded American at Rod Laver Arena, Williams stormed back to take a 6-7(8), 6-0, 6-4 win and advance to the third round.

There were a few minor upsets on the day for the women, but every "name" player in the field moved on to the third round, where the match-ups will grow more intriguing and the competition vastly more fierce.

Williams joined Caroline Woznaicki and Justine Henin in the third round by fighting off a groin injury that brought about an injury time out and returningd to the court, ultimately out-acing her opponent 8-0 and overcoming nine double faults and 43 unforced errors.

Narrowly avoiding a first-round upset was Italy's Francesca Schiavone, who didn't breathe easy until the final point was won  a 6-3, 5-7, 9-7 victory over Canada's Rebecca Marino. The tie-breaker third set took 1 hour, 9 minutes.

Schiavone's match was just the opposite of the dominant performances put forth by No. 14 Maria Sharapova (7-6(3), 6-3 over Virginie Razzano), No. 8 Victoria Azarenka (6-4, 6-4 over Andrea Hlavackova) and No. 9 Na Li (6-3, 6-2 over Evgeniva Rodina).

Also continuing to play like gangbusters is No. 23 Svetlana Kuznetsova, who diced Arantxa Rus 6-1, 6-4.

The highest seed to lose on Wednedsay was France's Marion Bartoli. who suffered an embarrassing third-set bagel in losing to Russia's Vesna Manasieva, 3-6, 6-3, 6-0. Also going down was 21st seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, dropped in short fashion by Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova, 6-4, 6-2.

Usually good for a Grand Slam run, No. 20 Kaia Kanepi fell in three (6-4, 3-6, 6-4) to Julia Georges, and No. 32 Tsventana Pironkova was whipped by Romania's Monica Niculescu, 6-1, 6-4.

Meanwhile, 30th seed Andrea Petkovic rallied to advance in three sets, and unseeded Chanelle Scheepers and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova won as well. Strycova is starting to get just a bit interesting, having now defeated a ranked player in Arvanne Rezai, and an Australian native in her first two encounters.


Two months shy of her 27th birthday, the 107th-ranked Scheepers was an unknown before making the fourth round of the French Open last year. She started 2011 0-2 before winning her first two matches here.