Venus Williams Advances, Petrova Loses

Wednesday, May 2nd 2007, 12:36 pm

By: News On 6

WARSAW, Poland (AP) _ Venus Williams beat Michaella Krajicek 6-4, 6-3 Wednesday in a first-round match at the J&S Cup and Mara Santangelo upset fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-3 in a second-round match.

Williams traded breaks early in the first set with the 18-year-old Krajicek before breaking again at 5-4 to win the first set. Williams broke her Dutch opponent again to lead 4-2 in the second set and cruised from there.

``I think that when I make mistakes, that I'm able to correct it on the court, and I think that's really important,'' Williams said. ``Clay is definitely about a rhythm, staying in a rhythm.''

In other second-round matches, third-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova rallied past Kateryna Bondarenko 2-6, 6-2, 6-1; sixth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze beat Tathhiana Garbin 6-2, 6-2; and Alona Bondarenko topped Agnieszka Radwanska 0-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Williams is playing in her fourth tournament this year after an injury-plagued 2006. The former top-ranked American next plays seventh-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia.

``It'll be a good match, we've played some close matches,'' Williams said. ``The last match we played was the Fed Cup, and it went my way for the USA _ but they won the Cup.''

The 31st-ranked Santangelo easily won the first set, but the ninth-ranked Petrova jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second. Santangelo then won the next six games.

``I tried to do my best, be aggressive and play my game and try to get the points, not wait for the points,'' Santangelo said. ``I'm playing good since the beginning of the year and I'm confident. I'm feeling good physically and mentally.''