Venus still eyeing improvement

Players Under the Microscope / Editor / 11 April 2007 / Leave a Comment

Venus Williams made light work of Samantha Stosur as she cruised through to the second round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, but sister Serena was forced to pull out through injury.

Venus bounced back from her heavy quarter-final defeat to Tatiana Golovin at Amelia Island last week and proved too strong for the Australian Stosur, winning in straight sets 6-2 6-2.

The 26-year-old American was delighted with her performance against the 14th seed but believes there is still plenty of room for improvement, particularly as she is adjusting to the clay courts.

"It was a good match to start out with," said Venus, who was facing Stosur for the first time. "She hits with a lot of spin, on serve and off the groundstrokes, so I feel like I played pretty good and the scoreline I guess shows that.

"I feel like I would like to improve, and on the claycourts you obviously have to adjust your game a bit also. But I feel like I'm definitely playing well in practice, and it's just important to execute in the match."

Venus now takes on Vasilisa Bardina in round two but a potentially mouth-watering third-round clash with her younger sister has been scuppered, after Serena had to pull out of her second-round match with Taiwan's Chang Yung-Jan with a groin injury.

"I've been playing a lot on the clay. I was just sliding a lot and I think I just slid too far," Serena said.

Venus is an overwhelming 1.11 favourite to overcome Russian teenager Bardina (9.4), and has also been supported in the outright winner market.

Having been matched at a high of 12.5 to small stakes, Venus is trading at 5.5 to lift the trophy she won in 2004, with her conqueror from last week, Golovin, heading the market at 4.7, ahead of Jelena Jankovic at 5.4.