Venus Williams continued her Wimbledon-winning form by thrashing
Anastasia Rodionova 6-3 6-0 in the first round of the San Diego
Classic on Monday.
Playing her first WTA tournament since claiming her fourth
Wimbledon crown with a straight-sets defeat of France's Marion
Bartoli, Williams looked fresh and powerful in polishing off the
outclassed Russian.
Not only was her vaunted backhand smooth but she also punished
her opponent with hard forehands.
"I was going for a lot," Williams told reporters.
"I just felt really aggressive, like I want to get the ball,
move forward and go for it. My forehand has improved the most this
year.
"I just don't think about it and I hit it."
After an injury-riddled 2006 and shaky start to this season,
Williams found her feet in London, thrashing three top-10 players
-- Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ana Ivanovic -- before
beating Bartoli.
Now ranked number 16, the 27-year-old Williams is hoping to
emulate the form she showed in 2000 and 2001, when she won
back-to-back Wimbledon and US Open titles.
"I'm the anti-Venus," she said.
"I finally have two legs to stand on. I'm playing a lot of
matches. I don't want to be injured any more and have to work so
hard to be where I want to be.
"I'm at a really wonderful place in my game where I can stay
there and keep getting better."
SEEDS ADVANCE
Williams won the San Diego Classic three times in a row from
2000 and says that she has matured to the point where she can take
it easy on herself mentally.
"I'm much calmer now," she said. "I feel calm when I'm down and
when I'm up and feel pretty even-keeled."
All the seeds that competed on the day got through.
Ninth seeded Russian Elena Dementieva rebounded from an erratic
second set to defeat Catalina Castano 6-4 3-6 6-1.
Number 11 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, who was horrified by
her poor play at Stanford last week, turned things around and
defeated American Jamea Jackson 6-2 6-1.
Number 14 Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine out-fought China's Peng
Shuai 3-6 6-3 6-4 and 13th seed Tatiana Golovin of France overcame
Argentina's Gisela Dulko 6-1 2-6 6-2
Williams and Vania King were the only Americans to post wins as
Jackson, Jill Craybas, Laura Granville, Coco Vandeweghe and
Brittany Augustine all lost.
On Tuesday, second seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia will face
King, who defeated compatriot Asia Muhammed 7-6 6-0, while fourth
seed Nadia Petrova of Russia will go up against compatriot Elena
Bovina.
Bartoli, the fifth seed, will also be in action against Japan's
Akiko Nakamura, while seventh seed Martina Hingis of Switzerland
will go up against Wimbledon quarterfinalist Michaella Krajicek of
the Netherlands.
Top seed and defending champion Maria Sharapova starts her
campaign on Wednesday.
(China Daily via Reuters August 1, 2007)