Serena wins first match back after injury
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-12 09:23

Serena Williams missed shots. She let a lead slip away. She had trouble taking control. After nearly a month off with a knee injury, Williams was rusty Tuesday. The important part, as she pointed out, is that she won.

Wearing her self-described "Wonderwoman" outfit, Williams beat Spain's Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 7-5, 6-3 to reach the Italian Open's third round.

Serena Williams of the United States serves the ball to Maria Sanchez Lorenzo of Spain during the women's clay court Italian Open tennis tournament at Rome's Foro Italico, Tuesday, May 11, 2004. Williams won 7-5, 6-3. [AP]

"It was a struggle today: I hit a lot of fly balls, I couldn't hit the ball in," she said. "But, hey, at least I got through it."

Williams lost the first two games, won five in a row, then lost three straight to make it 5-5 in the first set. Williams also lost the first two games of the second set before taking control for good.

Williams had not played since pulling out of a tournament in Charleston, S.C., last month, when her left knee flared up. She had surgery on that knee in August and returned to action in March, winning her first tournament back.

The 38th-ranked Sanchez Lorenzo hits with two hands on both her forehand and backhand and was able to dictate some of the points Tuesday. But she couldn't keep up on key exchanges when Williams stepped up her play.

"I'm playing pretty well. I'm practicing very well," Williams said. "I just think that maybe I was off a little in the match."

The Italian Open is a big tuneup for the year's second major — the French Open, which starts May 24. When Williams won the title her in 2002, en route to her first Roland Garros championship, she wore gold sneakers.

On Tuesday, she was decked out in a white dress with a shiny, silver-colored band around her waist, and a headband with "Serena" written in rhinestones.

"This is more or less Wonderwoman," said the top-seeded Williams, who received a first-round bye in Rome.

In Tuesday's only other second-round match, 17-year-old Maria Sharapova knocked off sixth-seeded Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-4. Sharapova, who won two titles in 2003, dominated the first set, then broke Dementieva's serve to close out the match.

Also, 2000 French Open champion Mary Pierce beat Argentine qualifier Gisela Dulko 6-1, 6-4, Karolina Sprem eliminated Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-2, No. 13 Conchita Martinez defeated Yuliana Fedak 6-1, 6-1, No. 16 Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi beat Magui Serna 6-2, 6-4, and Maria Elena Camerin defeated Jelena Dokic 7-5, 7-5.

Williams withdrew from the Family Circle Cup on April 15, saying her left knee was sore from practicing and playing too much after returning from an eight-month absence.

That came a day after Williams pulled out of the U.S. Fed Cup team's first-round match at Slovenia.

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