TENNIS in DEPTH.

Making the round of sixteen were No.8 seed Li Na and No.12 seed Angelique Kerber. Kerber was the first to advance, outsteadying former World No.1 Venus Williams, 64 61; Li beat Spanish wildcard Sílvia Soler-Espinosa, 63 61. ”I’m very happy I could beat Venus. She’s a great player, a great champion and has won so many Grand Slams,” Kerber said. “I played very well from the first point, so I’m very happy about it. It means a lot to me to win against her.” Kerber has had her breakthrough results on hardcourts, including her first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open and her first two WTA titles at Paris and Copenhagen, but she feels comfortable on clay as well. “It doesn’t matter to me where I play – blue clay, red clay, hardcourts,” she said. “The blue clay is a little bit different though. It’s very slippery and the balls bounce a little bit higher, but I feel good on it, and I’m in the third round now. I hope to continue like this.”

Li leads Kerber in their head-to-head series, 3-1, although Kerber’s win did come in their last meeting, their only 2012 meeting, at Indian Wells.

Samantha Stosur survived another midnight encounter to reach the third round of the Madrid Masters with a tough three-set win over American teenager Christina McHale. The Australian fifth seed struggled with her serve in the first two sets and was broken twice in each, but found her range in the decider to claim a 2-6 6-4 6-0 victory in just under two hours. The fifth-seeded Stosur, accustomed to late finishes after her series of midnight epics at last year’s US Open, came alive when she really needed it, reeling off eight straight games to finish McHale off. “I knew it was going to be a late day, but I certainly didn’t think we would start at 10 o’clock and finish up at midnight,” Stosur said.

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Samantha Stosur has hauled Australia back into the Fed Cup top-flight with a 6-4 6-1 victory over Germany’s Andrea Petkovic in Stuttgart. Stosur backed up her opening day straight-sets win over world No.14 Angelique Kerber to dismiss the returning Petkovic in one hour and 14 minutes on indoor red clay at the Porsche Arena. The win handed Australia an unbeatable 3-0 advantage in the tie and secured the nation a berth in the elite eight-nation World Group next year. Stosur entered the weekend with a 1-5 record this year against top-20 players following a mixed start to 2012. However the combination of the European spring and red dirt under her feet again proved agreeable as the 2010 French Open finalist produced two impressive wins before Roland Garros next month.

Following Gajdosova’s shock win over Julia Goerges on the opening day, the Germans decided to replace Goerges with world No.11 Petkovic on Sunday. It was a gamble considering that Petkovic had not played a match for three months because of back stress fractures, and the home girl was not able to cope with Stosur’s game in front of a parochial German crowd.

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There were victories for both Williams sisters at the Family Circle Cup as Venus followed up her successful comeback in Miami last week by cruising into the second round in Charleston. Venus, who spent seven months out before returning at the Sony Ericsson Open last week, cruised past Iveta Benesova 6-4 6-3 as she lost serve only once in the match. ”My serve felt great,” Williams told the WTA website. “I was still adjusting to the surface. Every clay court plays differently, the stadium can play different from the grandstand, I hadn’t played on stadium yet, and you don’t really slide a lot on that court anyway, so I was just getting the feel of the footing. But it was a good start.” However, Venus will now face a tough test in the second round where seventh seed Jelena Jankovic awaits.

Sister Serena was already in second-round action today, and made light work of Russian Elena Vesnina as she won 6-3 6-4. Also in the second round, second seed Samantha Stosur saw off wild-card Jamie Hampton 6-0 7-5 while Russian Vera Zvonareva had an even easier time in seeing off Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1 6-1. Eighth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova had to come from behind to beat Eleni Daniilidou 3-6 6-4 6-4 but there was no way back for number 10 Anabel Medina Garrigues, who exited with a 7-5 6-3 loss to Anastasia Rodionova.

The remaining first round matches saw number 12 Yanina Wickmayer, 13th seed Nadia Petrova, and number 17 Marina Erakovic, advance along with Varvara Lepchenko, Anna Tatishvili, Jill Craybas, Anna Tatishvili and Yaroslava Shvedova

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The Russian, seeded 30, pulled off a shock 6-1 6-7 (6/8) 7-6 (7/5) win the sixth-seeded Australian, who has struggled this season following her triumph at Flushing Meadows last September. Petrova served 15 aces during the match before clinching victory after two hours and 46 minutes on court. World number four Caroline Wozniacki overcame a scare as she battled back from a set down to beat Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson 3-6 7-5 6-2 in two hours and 37 minutes. The Dane was outplayed in the first set and teetered in the second before her class finally told in the third.

Second seed Maria Sharapova showed glimpses of her best form as she defeated Simoa Halep 6-3 6-4. She admitted she was trying a little too hard towards the middle of the second set. ”I almost started going for a little bit too much,” she said. “Instead of being patient, putting a few more balls back, I just hit a few errors that I shouldn’t have made. ”I got it together in the end.” Tenth seed Francesca Schiavone was forced to withdraw after one set of her match with Lucie Safarova, which she had lost 6-2. Seventh seed Marion Bartoli needed only 71 minutes to dispatch South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers 6-2 6-0, while there were also wins for Maria Kirilenko, Roberta Vinci and Ana Ivanovic.

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 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus shook off a lingering ankle injury to win the Qatar Open on Sunday, routing Sam Stosur of Australia 6-1, 6-2. This was Azarenka’s 17th straight victory and her first title since replacing Caroline Wozniacki as No. 1 after winning the Australian Open. It was her third title overall in 2012. Azarenka showed no ill effects after twisting her right ankle in the semifinal against Agnieszka Radwanska on Saturday. She broke the fifth-ranked Stosur twice to lead 4-1 in the first set, making a brief trip to the net to clinch it with a backhand volley. Azarenka was on her way to victory after winning the first three games of the second set. “It’s amazing. I can’t believe I could play that kind of tennis today,” Azarenka said. “I knew I wouldn’t be 100 percent, so I had to change and adjust. I was just surprised today that everything was going in.” Fearful of further aggravating her ankle injury, Azarenka said she tried to keep the rallies short and took advantage of the windy conditions. The ankle was wrapped during the match and Azarenka said it should be fine after a few days of rest. “I was trying to be really aggressive and not to let her command it, because that’s what she likes to do,” Azarenka said. “She has a huge serve, and the first shot, that’s what she puts the opponent on the run, and you run like so far behind the baseline. So I tried to take that away from her.”

Azarenka improved to 6-0 against the Stosur after having previously beaten the Australian in November at the year-ending WTA Championships. She kept Stosur’s potent kick serve in check with her return game, resulting in her opponent winning only 50 percent of first-serve points and 48 percent on the second. Azarenka also displayed a range of shots and ran down most balls, forcing Stosur to make 25 unforced errors to only eight for the Belarusian. “She’s very good at neutralizing everything,” Stosur said. “Especially tonight, I feel like I didn’t get rewarded for hitting big serves. I didn’t get rewarded for stepping in and trying to crack the return.” Stosur said Azarenka is benefiting from a growing belief in her game that comes with winning her first Grand Slam title and the longest winning streak since Maria Sharapova’s 18-match run in 2008. “I think the biggest difference is probably just her confidence that she’s playing with at the moment,” Stosur said. “When you’re like that, you seem to do everything a little bit better. … Obviously I haven’t had success, and hopefully tonight I have been able to learn a couple of things and I can go into the next one maybe with something else to think about.”

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The US Open champion was her own worst enemy as she slumped to a 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 defeat against the Romanian. Stosur, the No.6 seed, was guilty of making 33 unforced errors and was on the back foot for long periods. Stosur had been aiming to become Australia’s first women’s champion since Chris O’Neil beat Betsy Nagelsen in 1978. However, the 27-year-old has never looked comfortable dealing with the expectations at Melbourne Park – with Stosur failing to make in past the fourth round since her debut in 2002. And Cirstea, a former French Open quarter-finalist, added to her misery as she sealed victory in 91 minutes. The 21-year-old, who impressed with her looping forehands and work at the net, finally clinched her place in the second round with her fourth match point.

“Probably the whole of Australia hates me right now,” Cirstea said. ”I think everyone was talking about her and they were forgetting about me.” Stosur’s defeat was perhaps not totally unexpected, following as it did hot on the heels of a second-round exit in Brisbane and a first-round loss in Sydney. Stosur said: “I am extremely disappointed. It’s certainly not what I wanted, not just this tournament but the whole (Australian) summer. ”I think it was one of those matches where I wasn’t taking charge and she was playing super aggressive. ”She would either hit great balls or could miss by a long way. ”She hung in there and kept going for it and eventually got better and better. She played a very, very good match and you have to give credit where it’s due.” As for the pressure on her shoulders coming into the event, she added: “There’s probably nothing greater than my own expectation. ”I really, really wanted to do well here and over the summer and I did everything I could to try to give myself a good opportunity. But it obviously didn’t happen. ”I know everyone was behind me and it’s disappointing that I won’t get another chance to step out on court.”

Cirstea added that as the underdog, she had ben free to play without any pressure on her shoulders. ”Of course, it’s a big win, but I’m staying with my feet on the ground because I know today I went on the court, no pressure, she had the pressure,” the Romanian added. ”I had nothing to lose. ”But now things are changing a little bit. Now people are going to expect me to win (my) next match.” That will be against Poland’s Urszula Radwanska.

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Sam Stosur suffered another setback in her build up to the first grand slam of 2012 as she crashed out of the Sydney International. Fifth-seeded Stosur, who also lost in the second round in Brisbane, will now head into the Australian Open short of match practice following the 6-2 6-4 defeat to Francesca Schiavone. Schiavone, who beat Stosur in the 2010 French Open final, was never troubled as she secured a second-round clash with Daniela Hantuchova, a 7-5 6-2 victor over Roberta Vinci.

Stosur was not the only seed to fall at the first hurdle, though, as sixth-seeded Vera Zvonareva was comprehensively beaten 6-1 6-2 by fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. Despite the two upsets, defending champion Li Na and fellow seeds Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska and Marion Bartoli all booked their place in the second round.

Li needed just 66 minutes to account for Russian qualifier Ekaterina Makarova 6-0 6-3, while third-seeded Azarenka beat Stefanie Vogele 6-2 6-1. No.7 seed Radwanska overcame her sister Urszula Radwanska 6-1 6-1, while eighth-seeded Bartoli toppled Polona Hercog 6-3 6-3. South African qualifier Chanelle Scheepers set up a second-round showdown with French Open champion Li with a 6-4 6-2 win over Melinda Czink.

Dominika Cibulkova will face No.1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki after a 6-2 4-6 6-4 success against Peng Shuai, while Alexandra Dulgheru routed Sofia Arvidsson 6-1 6-1 and she will now take on Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.

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Czech Iveta Benesova cut Stosur down to size with a 6-4 6-2 win in just 70 minutes on Pat Rafter Arena on Wednesday. In all three attempts at the Brisbane International, Stosur has never advanced past the second round and from the outset it was obvious the world No.6 would struggle again. In the opening game of the match, Stosur lost the first three points before rallying to win the service game. But she was far from convincing and in many ways her form resembled the way she played 12 months ago when she was also the top seed and a second-round casualty to compatriot Jarmila Gajdosova.

Benesova, ranked 54th in the world, had lost all four previous matches against Stosur and in fact had never won a set. She broke serve in the seventh game of the first set, then again in first and seventh games of the second set. Stosur, playing her first tournament on home soil since winning the US Open last September, never got into full rhythm and had 20 unforced errors to Benesova’s 12.

The upset win pits Benesova against reigning Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters, while denying the tournament a heavyweight thriller. It was the second upset for the day with seventh seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova losing to Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi 6-0 6-3.

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