Williams sisters: Serena dominates, Venus withdraws
While Serena continued her summer comeback, defeating her first three opponents in straight sets on way to the round of 16, big sister Venus withdrew on Day 3 Wednesday due to Sjögren's Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that she said has been causing fatigue and joint pain.
Despite her No. 28 seed, Serena came in as the consensus favorite and proved to be just that, dropping only three games in her first two matches against Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski and the Netherlands’ Michaella Krajicek, respectively. In the third round, the 29-year-old three-time Open champion looked poised to take a fourth, knocking out the No. 4 seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, 6-1, 7-6(5).
Next up, Serena will face No. 16 seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, the 2008 French Open champ, who has also breezed through her matches in straight sets. The road from there should only get tougher as five top-10 seeds remain: No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 2 Vera Zvonareva, No. 7 Francesca Schiavone, No. 9 Samantha Stosur and No. 10 Andrea Petkovic.
As for Venus, after calling it quits before her second-round match against Germany’s Sabine Lisicki she said she hopes to return to the court "soon." A two-time Open champ, the 31-year-old beat Vesna Dolonts of Russia in the first round.
