ROME (AFP) - Venus Williams will take on her sister Serena in the second round of the Italian Open after battling past Elise Mertens 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) in Rome on Monday (May 13). Williams came out on top of a tight contest that went all the way to a third-set tie-break despite her winning five games on the bounce, letting the Belgian back in by missing six match points on her serve in the eighth game. She missed a further two match points as Mertens battled to level the set at 6-6, before finally taking the match in the tie-break and setting up a headline-grabbing clash with her 10th-seed sibling.<doc-sep>In her last two completed matches on the WTA tour spread over more than two months, Serena Williams has faced Rebecca Peterson each time, and has won each time. At the Miami Open, she had got the better of the industrious Swedish player in three sets. But she forfeited her next match against Wang Qiang. She then went on an extended injury break and has made her return to the game at Italian Open, in preparation for the French Open. This was her first non-Slam claycourt win since 2016, and she would like to avoid a repeat of what happened at Miami. The signs are certainly promising for the American. Unlike that Miami encounter, her opening match at Rome saw a much more Serena-like performance, where she took a little over an hour to hand a straight-sets defeat to the Swedish star. Though she got broken once, it was a commanding performance on serve by the American, where she won a whopping 82 and 60 percent of the points on her first and second serve respectively. But she cannot afford to relax. Her next opponent is a familiar one – her elder sister, and possibly her greatest rival, at least in the early stages of her career – the incomparable Venus Williams. Unlike Serena though, Venus had a much more difficult opening match, against Elise Mertens. Neither Venus nor Mertens had a good outing when it came to their performance on serve. Each one was broken by the other way too frequently; Venus was broken eight times and Mertens, seven times! After Venus pocketed the first set 7-5, Mertens made a comeback and won the second set to take the game to a decider. When Venus went a double break up and served for the match, it seemed the match had decisively swung in favour of the American. But the tenacious Mertens broke the Williams serve and then held her own to take it to 4-5. While serving for the match a second time, Venus again let her guard down and could not seal the match, despite having match points on her own serve. In this topsy-turvy match, when Mertens seemed to be on an upswing at 5-5, Venus broke the Belgian youngster once again. But while serving for the match, she served up another horrible game and failed to win a single point on serve. It was fitting that a match like this, where neither player showed any kind of consistency, had to be finally decided by a tie-break - which the American veteran managed to win. But after such a patchy performance, Venus will need to raise her level a couple of notches to be able to withstand the much more difficult challenge posed by her younger sister. Serena has won 18 of their 30 matches and on the evidence of the form shown by the two in their respective first matches at Rome, it looks quite likely that the head-to-head record will get even more skewed after their second round match here. Prediction: Serena Williams to win in straight sets.<doc-sep>
The four-time Rome champion Serena Williams has won the first match on clay outside Roland Garros since Rome 2016, ousting Rebecca Peterson 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 15 minutes to kick off title chase. This is only the fourth WTA tournament of the season for world no. 11, losing to Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-final of the Australian Open and retiring against Garbine Muguruza at Indian Wells before withdrawing in Miami. Her last match came against Peterson and she managed to beat the Swede again today, firing ten aces and dropping 13 points in nine service games. Peterson broke her once but that wasn't enough for a more favorable result, spraying too many errors and suffering four breaks from ten chances offered to Serena. The 23-time Grand Slam champion tamed her shots nicely, moving around the court well and reducing the number of unforced errors, one of the key elements in her win today. The Swede fended off a few break points in the early games and broke Serena for a 3-1 lead after a loose forehand from the American, staying ahead only for a couple of minutes before Williams broke back in game five with a forehand return winner. Serving at 3-3, Rebecca got broken again when her forehand landed long and Serena closed the opener with a serve at 15 in game ten for a 6-4 after 38 minutes. Williams played even better in set number two, securing a break in game three after a backhand mistake from Peterson and moving 5-2 up after a fantastic point and a crosscourt forehand winner. Serving for the triumph in the next game, Serena repelled two break points and sealed the deal after yet another forehand error from the Swede, booking the second round clash against her sister Venus or Elise Mertens.