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Venus Williams clawed her way into the Australian Open fourth round on Saturday, showing her fighting qualities to make the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon in 2011.
The 34-year old veteran, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, came from behind to defeat Camila Giorgi of Italy 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 and set up a fourth round clash with Polish sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
The win takes the 18th seeded American`s record for 2015 to 8-0, including winning the Auckland Classic lead-up event.
“Well this little cat has a few tricks left,” she said. “But she played amazing, she was so aggressive and did nothing wrong.
“I just kept thinking I`d have some chances at some point.”
Williams said she was overjoyed to advance so far at a major again after a long battle with the energy-sapping Sjogren`s Syndrome, which was diagnosed in 2011, and a string of injuries.
“That feels fantastic, especially when you have things happen in your life which are out of your control. I don`t want to leave it at that, I`ll try to keep going,” she said, clearly enjoying the moment in front of an appreciative crowd.
She looked down and out with Giorgi serving for the match at 5-4 but broke back to love to stay alive.
Williams went ahead 6-5 and had two set points with Giorgi serving but fired both chances into the net as the Italian hung on to force a tie-break.
Despite a hiccup when she double faulted at 2-2, Williams won the tie-break 7-3 to take the match to a third set with momentum on her side.
She went up a break and Giorgi immediately broke back, but it was the last resistance from the Italian as Williams cruised through the third set, raising both hands to the wildly cheering crowd after sealing the win.
AFP
