Home arrow News arrow Sport arrow Williams Advances to Third Round
Williams Advances to Third Round PDF Print E-mail
User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 
Written by Lisa Zimmerman   
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
Venus WilliamsVenus Williams opened with an ace against Ioana Raluca Olaru, but the match wasn’t the cakewalk it first appeared to be. However, Williams did prevail 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the third round. At the beginning of the first set, it looked as though Williams, 27, would steamroll past the 18-year-old Romanian, who was playing in her first US Open and in just her second Grand Slam tournament. Her shots were steady and there was even one point that her ball flew past Olaru with such velocity that she missed connecting with it entirely.

Down 3-0, Olaru finally held serve to take her first game. At 4-1, Olaru challenged a ball that had been called in. The replay found in her favor and she flashed a brief smile.

Olaru began to find her stride and broke Williams late in the first, but the two-time US Open winner did herself in, hitting long, wide and into the net on consecutive points.

A clearly annoyed Williams came back out with great intensity. With Olaru on serve Williams attacked and didn’t let her opponent win a point in that game as she took the set.

With a strong and persistent breeze, both women had several errant ball tosses and Williams had some trouble keeping her forehand in, with numerous balls going long. Olaru struggled with her accuracy, but it was Williams who continued to get more and more frustrated with her errors and could be seen muttering to herself between points. Upon holding serve to go up 2-1 in the second set, she appeared visibly relieved, letting out a long sigh.

From that point forward Olaru only managed one more game before Williams put the match away. She will next face the winner of Eleni Daniilidou vs. Alona Bondarenko.
     Venus Williams is appearing in her 9th US Open. She won in 2000 and 2001 and was runner-up in 1997 and 2002.
-     This is Ioana Raluca Olaru's second Grand Slam appearance. She made her Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros earlier this year.
-     Williams and Olaru have faced each other once before, at Memphis, where Williams won 6-3, 6-2.
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/match_reports/2007-08-29/200708291188425501718.html
 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]
Advertisement

Foundation Georgia

www.foundationgeorgia.com