Zeenews Sports Bureau
Melbourne: Two big names of women’s tennis, Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova, will meet each other in Round Three of the Australian Open after both won their respective matches in straight sets.
Second seed Sharapova was up first, playing the unseeded Japanese Misaki Doi who wasn’t expected to pose too many threats to the Russian. But it was the ease with which Sharapova blew away Doi that will mark her as one of the favourites to go all the way.
The screeching Russian wrapped up the match super-quick without dropping a single game. The 6-0, 6-0 score-line was indicative of the dominance of the former world number 1.
Venus Williams was up next against France’s Alize Cornet and the French girl was quicker off the blocks. Having broken the American’s first service game and held her own, a huge upset seemed on the cards. But Venus stamped her dominance by breaking back shortly afterwards and taking the set 6-3.
The second set wasn’t even as tough as the first as Venus replicated the first set’s score-line without tiring herself too much.
The two hot favourites will now play each other in the Third Round, having been drawn in the bottom half of the women’s draw.
First Published: Wednesday, January 16, 2013, 16:40