Thursday 22 January 2015

Venus shines bright in the Southern skies

Two Americans began day four on Margaret Court Arena - 19th seed and recent victor in Auckland Venus Williams was in second round action with Lauren Davis with Venus eyeing off a short term weekend spot and longer range possible semi final with her younger sister.

Currently ranked 53, Davis annoyed the seven time major winner with 2 forehand winners to break the opening Williams serve.  She doubled her lead thanks to a number of Venus mistakes, some forced due to the positive work around the court from the 21 year old.

Once Venus settled, and she traditionally takes a time to so do, the stride was hit with marked effect. Once she held serve to register her statistical impact on the match, we became witness to vintage Venus, the serve setting up the powerful forehand and a backhand which was especially venomous today.  Venus tore Lauren to shreds, and scattered the pieces anonymously over the court during the six game blitz which gave her the set 6-2 and Lauren plenty of headaches.

Lauren arrested the pain when she bucked the trend at the start of set two, volleying and rallying cleanly in contrast to Venus' sloppy forehand attempts and breaking for a temporary edge.  Venus objected and Lauren agreed to the request for unforced errors and a careless double fault and a 1-1 score.

Game four confirmed the final direction of the match when from 30-0 Lauren managed to drop serve again, mainly due to her failings, but certainly the constant pressure of a consistent Williams not helping.

Both players resumed an attractive battle for the remaining five games but the real battle had been won, and Venus knew that her serve would not be threatened again.

A 6-2 6-3 victory saw Venus Williams advance to round 3 and a probable round four meeting with sixth seed Radwanska.

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