Robson sees off struggling Venus

1/2
13 May 2013

Laura Robson brushed aside Venus Williams 6-3 6-2 to set up a second-round meeting with the American's sister Serena at the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome.

The British number one made light of difficult, blustery conditions to see off the former world number one, who was plainly struggling with the back injury that has blighted her season so far.

But it was a fine performance from Robson, 19, who showed no ill effects from her final-set collapse against Ana Ivanovic last week which cost her a place in the Madrid quarter-finals.

Robson made a rocky start, serving two double-faults in her opening service game and saving two break points, but hit back to break Williams in the next game to take a 2-1 lead.

Williams, playing only her second clay-court event of the season following her return from injury, then double-faulted to hand Robson a double break.

The American had plenty of chances in the first set and spurned 10 break-point opportunities before taking her 11th when Robson served for the set, only for Robson to immediately respond with her third break to take the opener.

Robson, whose contrasting week in Madrid last week also included a career-best win over world number four Agnieszka Radwanska, made a great start to the second set.

With Williams beginning to struggle, Robson secured two service breaks to go 5-1 up, but had to wait for her victory as Williams briefly rallied to claw one break back.

But there was no repeat of the nerves that had afflicted her against Ivanovic as Robson took advantage of her third match-point chance on the Williams serve with a big backhand to wrap up an excellent win.

Robson will now face world number one Serena, who was watching from the stands.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in