Venus shrugs off early fright in San Diego
Matthew Cronin
Top seed Venus Williams, bidding to win the $750,000 Acura Classic for the third year in a row, recovered from an early scare to defeat Slovak Janette Husarova 6-4 6-1 in the second round on Wednesday.
The American, who has only been beaten by her world number one-ranked sister Serena since falling to Belgian Kim Clijsters at the Hamburg final in May, was broken three times in the first set.
Husarova, 28, confounded the world number two with numerous drop shots, changes of pace off the ground and a deceptive serve.
Williams served erratically and was unable to dictate play off the ground until the end of the set when she began to find her range.
"I've never been drop-shotted that much," Williams said. "I played pretty good overall but my serve was not as effective as it should have been. I've seen her play before and I knew she'd come out and try to take it to me. She had nothing to lose."
But the defending champion jumped on Husarova's serve in the second set, charging the net and cracking winners down the line.
Williams is trying to add a consistent net-rushing attack to her game in order to regain an edge over Serena, who has won the last three matches between the sisters.
"I should have come in a lot more," said the American. "Sometimes I hit it to her and she'd get it, sometimes I tried to hit behind and she still got it."
Williams, who won the Bank of the West Classic last week, will next play 15th seed Anne Kremer of Luxembourg, a 5-7 6-3 6-0 winner over Germany's Greta Arn.
