Venus, Davenport start down path toward quarterfinal meeting

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. -- Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport won their second-round matches Tuesday at the Bausch & Lomb Championships, and appeared headed for a showdown in the quarterfinals.

Williams overmatched Martina Sucha in 46 minutes 6-0, 6-1, and Davenport, the No. 1 player in the world, shrugged off some first-set struggles to open defense of her Bausch & Lomb title with a 6-4, 6-3 win against Kristina Brandi.

In her first win of the year on clay, Williams lost only five points in her first five service games before Sucha broke through for four consecutive points in the 12th game of the match.

"Has it been that long since I've been here?" she replied when asked about her return to the green clay-court event. "I don't know why I've been gone so long. This is the nicest time ever up here.

"In fact I told Serena, I think we should invest in a place up here. I just love it here, it's so serene."

After struggling in the first set, Davenport finished the second with nine consecutive points. She trailed love-40 in the eighth game before claiming the next five points, three of them on aces. She hit 111 and 108 mph on the final two serves to win the game, and then broke Brandi at love in the ninth game to wrap up the match.

"I feel like when I'm serving well it kind of translates to the rest of my game," Davenport said. "Tonight I felt like my baseline game wasn't 100 percent. But I was really able to serve well at crucial times. I think that probably saved me."

Williams played the match with her right thigh heavily wrapped, but attributed it to "the quick surface change. That was only my second or third day on clay yesterday when I hit quite a bit. When I woke this morning, I had a sore groin. It was nice that today's match was so quick."

Williams, ranked No. 8 in the world, said she likes the clay surface, though it forces her to be more patient than on hard surfaces.

"Balls that might be a winner on the hard court may come back at me," she said. "I've got to be more willing to move forward. These defensive shots are easier taken care of at the net than at the base line."

Davenport and Williams were among five seeded winners to win Tuesday. No. 9 seed Elena Likhovtseva beat Anna Smashnova, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2; No. 12 seed Silvia Farina Elia turned back Tathiana Garbin 6-4, 6-2; and No. 13 Ai Sugiyama needed three sets to beat Barbora Strycova, 6-7 (3-7), 6-1, 6-1.

The only seeded player to lose a first-round match was Karolina Sprem of Croatia who dropped a three-setter to Virginia Ruano Pascual, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.