Slow start, fast finish

Venus stumbles out of block, but advances to semis

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Venus Williams dropped the first set and trailed 3-0 in the second before winning 12 of 15 games to beat Francesca Schiavone of Italy in the J&S Cup quarterfinals Friday.

The top-seeded Williams needed nearly two hours for the 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory.

"At first she was wrong-footing me some, and I really had to get my feet moving more. I tried coming in a little bit more, because I think my volleys are working well nowadays. I was just fighting, because she was playing well," Williams said.

Her semifinal opponent will be Denisa Chladkova of the Czech Republic, who eliminated Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia 7-5, 7-5.

In the other quarterfinals, Amelie Mauresmo rallied to defeat Anna Pistolesi of Israel 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Jelena Dokic beat Magui Serna of Spain 7-5, 6-2.

 

Related information

Stories

Venus rolls into quarterfinals of J&S Cup in Warsaw

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video