World number one Serena Williams overpowered Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 7-6 6-1 at the Italian Open on Tuesday in her first match since the Australian Open final.But defending champion Dinara Safina, also plagued by injury problems, slumped to a 6-4 6-7 6-1 loss to Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru.American Williams suffered a knee injury after winning the Australian title in January and she looked listless in the early stages of her second-round match, struggling on serve.Bacsinszky capitalised, mixing things up nicely and unleashing eye-catching winners from both sides to break twice and race 4-1 ahead.Williams clawed her way back despite a few erratic moments, saving three set points on her opponent's serve before dominating the tiebreak and the second set to book a meeting with Germany's Andrea Petkovic.Third-seeded Russian Safina, who has missed most of the season with a back injury, also made a sluggish start on clay made heavy by rain and trailed 4-0.She levelled at 4-4 but surrendered the initiative immediately, skewing an easy volley wide to lose serve on the way to conceding the first set.She eventually claimed a topsy-turvy second set on a tiebreak before crumbling in the decider.Venus Williams, another player returning from an injury layoff at the warm-up tournament for the French Open, cruised into the third round with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Swiss Patty Schnyder.Twice champion Jelena Jankovic of Serbia needed three sets to overcome American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3 3-6 6-1.News posted by www.newsinfoline.com
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