Ninth seeded and former World No 1 American Serena Williams squares against another former World No 1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the third round match of 2012 Madrid Open on Thursday.

Williams suffered a fourth round defeat at the Australian Open in the start of the season and missed a series of events due to an injury in February. She skipped Indian Wells Open this year as well and was a quarter-finalist in Miami. In her first event on clay, Williams won the title in Charleston and here at Madrid, she looks to be enjoying same form as she raced past Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-1 in the first round and in the second round defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-1.

Her opponent: Wozniacki has had an erratic year so far and would be looking to make amends in the on-going event. She started the year at the Sydney International where she lost in the quarterfinal to Agnieszka Radwanska. In the only Grand Slam this year - the Australian Open, she lost to Belgian veteran Kim Clijsters at the same stage. Her best result this year came in the recently concluded E-Boks Open where she finished second behind Angelique Kerber. She was defeated by Kerber one more time in the second round of the recently concluded Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in straight sets. Her win/loss record this year stands at 18/8.

Both players have met four times before and Serena leads 3-1 in head to head record. Wozniacki scored her maiden win this year at Miami Open with 6-4, 6-4 scoreline.

TennisEarth Pick: Serena Williams to win in straight sets.