Serena Williams © Getty Images

Top Seeds Advance in Day Two of the Rogers Cup

August 16, 2005 - An injured Serena Williams squeaked out a win last night, battling back from one set down to defeat French lucky loser Stephanie Cohen- Aloro 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the Rogers Cup presented by American Express. It was the No. 5 seed Williams' first match of the tournament and her first since losing in the third round of Wimbledon to American Jill Craybas.

In the opening set, Williams had trouble covering the court. She seemed unable put her weight into her serve. After the match, she admitted that her left knee was hurting?a side effect of when she injured her ankle at the Italian Open in May.

?I was fighting and it was pretty much all I had?, said Williams, who had her serve broken six times in the match.?It didn't feel good and I wasn't moving to any balls. I was trying to shorten points and just do what I could do.?

Before the match, Williams told reporters she had come to Toronto to ?go the distance? and work her way into match form in time for the U.S. Open in two weeks. In normal times, the feisty Cohen- Oloro , ranked No. 91 in the world, would have been an easy warm up for the seven-time Grand Slam champ. But these are not normal times for Williams whose last major victory came at the 2005 Australian Open in January.

On Tuesday, defending champion and No. 3 seed Amelie Mauresmo started strong with a convincing 6-2, 6-3 win over Madagascar's Delly Randriantefy in the second round of the Rogers Cup presented by American Express at the Rexall Centre in Toronto.

The French star broke serve in the second game of the first set and rolled on to win the set in 29 minutes without facing a break point. In the second set, Randriantefy held serve until 3-4, when Mauresmo got up 0-40 and broke her. Mauresmo closed out on her own serve to win in 1 hour, 16 minutes.

?I think in the first set I was very effective, ? said Mauresmo . ?And then in the second set physically I had a some trouble keeping the rhythm and making way too many errors to really finish it off the way I wanted to.?

In other action, No. 2 seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova won a grueling match against Spain 's Anabel Medina Garrigues 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the third round. In the first set, the 2004 US Open champion was broken early and seemed unable to find her game. In the middle set, the Russian found her form and broke the Spaniard at 6-5 to win the set. In the final set, Kuznetsova closed out the match by breaking Medina-Garrigues' serve for the sixth time in the match.

After the match, Kuznetsova explained the trouble she found herself in. ?I'm not playing as well the last two weeks as I would love to. But I wanted very badly to be there and to win matches. I had lots of faith on myself and wanted to play at my best level and to fight a lot, you know.?

In the first match of Center Court, No. 10 seed Nathalie Dechy of France advanced to the second round with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Colombia 's Fabiola Zuluaga. The Frenchwoman broke Zuluaga's serve two times in a row to claim the first set in 30 minutes. At 3 -3 in the second, Dechy broke Zuluaga's again then held serve to close the match in 82 minutes.

In other matches, Ana Ivanovic posted a gutsy 6-2, 7-6(3) victory over Italian qualifier Tathiana Garbin and will now play Marion Bartoli, who was leading Maria Kirilenko 6-4, 3-0 when the Russian retired due to injury. No. 14 seed Flavia Penetta defeated Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-4, 7-5 while No. 15 seed Dinara Safina posted a solid 6-1, 6-2 over Nuria Llagostera-Vives. Spanish veteran Conchita Martinez had to dig deep to overcome Anna Groenefeld 6-1, 6-7(1), 7-5 while Chinese Jie Zheng advanced with a seemingly comfortable 6-3, 6-4 victory over Maria Emilia Salerni.

The stars of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour will debut at the world class Rexall Centre in Toronto as part of the Rogers Cup, presented by American Express, August 13–21st. Purchase your tickets online or call 1-877-2-TENNIS ext. 4333.

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