Williams sisters register maiden win in India

New Delhi News.Net
Tuesday 4th March, 2008 (IANS)

Charismatic Williams sisters registered their first victory on the Indian soil, dumping Andreea Ehritt-Vanc of Romania and Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand in the doubles first round of the $600,000 Bangalore Open here at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) tennis centre Tuesday.

The American sisters, who got a wild card in the doubles, took just 94 minutes to shrug off the Romanian-Thai duo's challenge 7-6 (5), 6-4 and set up a quarterfinal clash with third seed Chinese pair of Shuai Peng and Tiantian Sun.

Venus and Serena were a little scratchy in the beginning. Being specialized singles players, their chemistry also seemed out of sorts. Both the sisters lost their opening service games of the encounter to go down 0-3 in the first set.

However, they pulled their socks up and broke back, first Tanasugarn's serve in the fourth game and then Ehritt-Vanc's in the sixth to level the set at 3-3.

From then onwards, it went on even terms and the set was decided on tie-breaker where the Wiiliams sisters came out on top with a 7-5 tie-break score.

As the match progressed, the sisters got better and better. Serena, especially, was immaculate with her net play.

In the second set, Ehritt-Vanc and Tamasugarn had no clue of the American sisters' power play and were soon down 1-3, Williams sisters, who struck 10 aces in the match, broke the Romanian's serve in the third game and did not give their opponent any opportunity to get back into the match.

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