Fierce-fighting Serena Williams showed her usual style of fierceness on the clay court against Nadia Petrova from a set down to blast past the Russian in the second round of the $2.2 million clay court tournament, the Rome Masters.
Seeded ninth on the table of ranking, Serena showed her worth when with a little over two hours dispatched Petrova with a final score line of 4-6,6-2,6-3 to emerge winner.
The 13-time Grand Slam winner is to face Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain in the third round.
In the women’s draw, Maria Sharapova reached the third round with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over American Christina McHale on Tuesday, but will not be joined by her fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who lost 7-5, 6-4 to world No. 4 Petra Kvitova.
Also, world No. 9 Juan Martin del Potro ended the Russian men’s charge after knocking out the country’s No. 1 Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-2.
The only other Russian man in the Rome draw, Alex Bogomolov Jr., lost in the first round to 13th seed Gael Monfils of France 6-4, 6-1.
