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Serena through, Venus out

By AjayTyagi (TennisEarth.com), Submitted On

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In a day that saw both the Williams sisters struggle finally produced some real contrasting results when the US Open champion and three time winner here in Melbourne, Serena Williams made it to the next round of Australian Open 2009. In a 6-3, 7-5 win she defeated Argentine Gisela Dulko, after some hiccups in the second set.  However, Wimbledon champion and sister Venus Williams left the Melbourne Park with acute disappointment when she was handed another Aussie Open defeat, this time by Melbourne park debutante Carla Suarez Navarrro. After winning the first set 2-6, Williams found her strategy falling apart in front of her young Spanish opponent's huge crosscourt forehands, forcing errors on Williams' forehand at all corners of the court. Venus' serve also let her down today as she was barely able to win points on her first serve.

The day was quite routine for some of the other seeded players when fourth seed Elena Dementieva cruised to victory with a 6-4, 6-1 clearance over Iveta Benesova of Czech Republic. 2006 champion Amelie Mauresmo also moved to round three of the Aussie Open with a tough 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Briton Elena Baltacha. Local favorite and Australia's most genuine  contender in the main draw, Samantha Stosur downed German Sabine Lisicki 6-3, 6-4. Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano also pulled an upset when she took out championship's 14th seed Patty Schnyder quite unassumingly 6-3, 6-1. Eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also moved to next round with a methodical 6-2, 6-2 victory over Tatjana Malek of Germany.

Other winners of round two included Flavia Pennetta, , Shuai Peng, Anabel Medina Garrigues, Jie Zheng, Victoria Azarenka, Dominika Cibulkova who registered straight sets victories over their respective opponents.

Rafael Nadal, leading the men's draw also consolidated his chances at the open with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 demolition of little known Croat Roko Karanusic. Fourth seed Andy Murray also had a similar path to the third round when he defeated Spaniard Marcel Granollers in the last match of the day. Sixth seed Gilles Simon who opened the day four in Melbourne park, struggled before winning 6-7(5) 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 against Australian Chris Guccione. Last year's runner up Jo-Wilfred Tsonga faced the toughest challenge of the championship so far when he overcame mighty Croat Ivan Ljubicic, 6-7(4), 7-6(8), 7-6(7), 6-2. 12th seed Gael Monfils, who handed Nadal his very first defeat in a long time, downed Stefan Koubek 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to move to round three. Hewitt's conquerer Chilean Fernando Gonzalez also registered an easy 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 win over Guillermo Canas.  Ninth seed James Blake also scored a similar 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 win over little known Frenchman Sebastien De Chaunac.   

The round three line up was completed by the other winners of the day in Mario Ancic, Richard Gasquet, Tommy Haas, Fernando Verdasco and Radek Stepanek