Venus Williams crashed out the Australian Open in the second round in Melbourne, losing in three sets to Carla Suarez Navarro.The seven-time Grand Slam champion, shimmering under the lights in a canary-yellow dress, held a match point late in the third set but went down 2-6 6-3 7-5.
Venus tore through the first set as the match started off following the script but she was unsettled in the second as Suarez Navarro stepped in a little and started to take the American's shots on the rise.
Ripping through and over the ball to impart great top-spin, the Spaniard began to wrest control from
Venus and eased ahead in set two, finally taking it when a miss-hit forehand flew long from the American's racket.
All long limbs and angry squeals,
Venus threw everything at her opponent at the start of the third but her serve was continuing to fail her. Still, though, she held on to nose ahead.
Suarez Navarro's answer was to step in even further and pummel away with heavy groundstrokes.
It was
Venus who finally got the breakthrough to creep 3-1 ahead, closing out the fourth game with a big forehand swing-volley.
She needed a big swinging ace to stave off a breakpoint in the next game and then slammed in a 192 kph serve to regain control before double-faulting for deuce again.
Another forehand volley had mother Oracene holding her head but gave
Venus another game point and this time she held to move 4-1 ahead in the decider.
The American thought she had the buffer she needed but, refusing to be cowed,
Suarez Navarro unleashed a series of shimmering shots to peg
Venus back and break her for 5-4.
Riled, the powerful
Venus responded with some stinging returns in the next game. She racked up one match point but blew it with a clumsily hit backhand long and the Spaniard eventually held for 5-5.
Suarez Navarro piled the pressure on
Venus in the next game and earned two break points.
Venus saw off the first with a stinging serve, but pushed a forehand wide to be broken.
Serving for the match,
Suarez Navarro missed her first match point with a wide forehand but clinched the best victory of her career on the second when
Venus netted a forehand.
She faces Spanish compatriot
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in the next round.
Sister Serena produced a characteristic fightback to advance to the third round after a 6-3 7-5 victory over Argentina's
Gisela Dulko.
Williams comfortably won the first set but had to overcome 3-0 and 5-2 deficits in the second before she won the match in 110 minutes. The second set lasted 79 minutes alone.
The second seed's fighting qualities were never better displayed with
Dulko serving for the set in the ninth game.
The Argentine had five set points, each of which
Williams staved off.
Williams also held six break points of her own before finally winning the game on her seventh opportunity to take the score to 4-5.
The nine-times Grand Slam winner took some time to adjust a protective brace and strapping around her ankles in the changeover and then held serve to level at 5-5.
She broke
Dulko in another epic struggle in the next game to serve out for the match, which she sealed with an ace.
Elena Dementieva extended her winning streak to 12 matches with a comfortable 6-4 6-1 victory over
Iveta Benesova.
Dementieva, who is unbeaten in 2009 after claiming the Auckland and Sydney titles, said after her first-round victory over Kristina Barrois that her run of matches had made her a little fatigued and affected her performance.
The world number four made 23 unforced errors and served five double faults on the second show court but was still too strong for the world number 35, wrapping up the match in 72 minutes.
The Beijing Olympics gold medallist overpowered
Benesova with 20 clear winners to the Czech's seven and will meet Australia's Samantha
Stosur in the third round.
Stosur provided some temporary relief to Australia's dwindling tennis stocks when she beat Germany's Sabine Lisicki 6-3 6-4.
Following
Jelena Dokic's win on Wednesday night,
Stosur's victory ensured Australia would have two women in the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in five years.
China's
Zheng Jie also doggedly made the third round, battling for a 7-6 (0) 5-7 6-3 victory over Hungary's Melinda Czink.
Zheng showed her mettle last year by making the semi-finals of
Wimbledon, but had never before gone beyond the first round in Melbourne in four previous attempts.
