August 31, 2005 Williams Sisters Reach Third Round at US Open FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. - The Williams sisters took another step towards a much-anticipated fourth round encounter late on Wednesday, as they both cruised past unseeded second-round opponents in straight sets on a windy day at Flushing Meadows. First up was 2000 and 2001 US Open champion Venus Williams, who clobbered Russian teenager Maria Kirilenko 61 63 in a late afternoon match. Venus, seeded No.10 this fortnight, seemed relatively unbothered by the swirling conditions, executing her usual aggressive style of play successfully by blasting 24 winners to her 18-year-old opponent's four and winning on 12 of 16 net approaches. "I think the wind was definitely a test today," said Venus. "It was deathly windy. It's easy to fumble and self-destruct in those kind of conditions. I tried to add more spin, take some off the serve, try to get the first serve in... not go for too much, but of course still play the right shots, try to move forward and be aggressive." Venus is trying to maintain the fearless, aggressive mindset that helped her win her fifth career Grand Slam singles championship earlier in the summer at Wimbledon. Prior to her stunning run at the All-England Club, where she ousted defending champion Maria Sharapova in the semifinals and Lindsay Davenport in three thrilling sets in the final, Venus had not hoisted a Grand Slam trophy since here in September, 2001. "I'm feeling pretty confident in my ability to compete," said the 25-year-old American, who now has a 40-5 career record at the US Open. "The points even today, when they got tighter, she rushed me or attacked me, my game goes up to that next level." Joining Venus in reaching the third round was younger sister Serena, who moved past Catalina Castano 62 62 in the feature women's night match. Serena, the 1999 and 2002 US Open champion, dictated the rallies by taking many of the Colombian's topspin shots on the rise, and also controlled the forecourt, winning on 16 of 17 ventures into the net. She finished the match off in style, hitting a pinpoint-accurate dropshot to reach her first match point and firing a screaming inside-out backhand winner to clinch the one-hour, 10-minute victory. "I'm definitely moving a lot better than I have in the past couple weeks," said Serena, who won her seventh Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January but has been hampered recently by a nagging left ankle injury. "I'm definitely not at my best. I don't even want to put it in percentage terms. Honestly, I'm under 50%. But I've won stuff under 50% before." After the match, Serena announced that she would be donating $100 for Hurricane Katrina relief for every one of her aces through the rest of her matches in the 2005 season. "I thought it would be just a halfway decent gesture," she said. "I can only imagine what it must be like in New Orleans, especially looking at the all the footage, all the rain, all this horrible stuff. "But if I don't do so good with the aces, I'm going to have to start doing it for the double faults." Waiting for the Williams sisters in the third round will be another pair of dangerous seeds, namely No.20 seed Daniela Hantuchova, who will take on Venus, and No.25 seed Francesca Schiavone, who will face Serena. Hantuchova, a former Top 5 player, routed Maria Emilia Salerni 61 60 in her second round match, allowing zero break opportunities on her serve and winning over twice as many points as her Argentine opponent in the 52-minute clinic. Schiavone also advanced in straight sets, blasting six aces and using her heavy topspin groundstrokes to move past Finnish qualifier Emma Laine 62 62 in one hour, seven minutes. Venus is 7-0 against Hantuchova, winning six of those meetings in straight sets, most recently in the third round at Wimbledon earlier this year. Serena is 2-1 against Schiavone, winning their first two encounters easily but losing their last meeting in straight-sets earlier this season on the red clay of Rome. Also advancing later in the day were No.9 seed Nadia Petrova, who crushed Aiko Nakamura 62 60, No.30 seed Ai Sugiyama, who toughed out a 26 64 64 victory over Michaela Pastikova, Israeli teenager Shahar Peer, who upset No.33 seed Vera Douchevina 75 36 63, American Laura Granville, who overcame a substantial third-set deficit to defeat Nicole Pratt 64 57 75, and finally Germany's Julia Schruff, who posted a 62 63 victory over Tour veteran Lisa Raymond. The Williams sisters and the other seven aforementioned winners join top seed Sharapova, No.4 seed Kim Clijsters, No.26 seed Nicole Vaidisova and unseeded players Sania Mirza, Marion Bartoli, Ivana Lisjak and Maria Vento-Kabchi in progressing through to the third round on the top half of the draw on Wednesday. The bottom half of the draw will play their second round matches on Thursday. --

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