Serena advances; Radwanska, Wozniacki exit Rome

The ninth-seeded former No. 1 Williams had to come from behind to best former
top-10 Russian Nadia Petrova 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in 2 hours, 9 minutes on the red
clay at Foro Italico.

The 2002 Rome champion Williams, now 15-0 on clay this year, upset current
world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in last week’s finale on the controversial blue
clay in Madrid.

Up next for the powerful American will be Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Meanwhile, Radwanska succumbed to Czech Petra Cetkovska 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 and the
sixth-seeded Wozniacki gave way to the clay-court specialist Medina Garrigues
6-4, 4-0, as the Danish star retired because of upper respiratory illness.

Fifth-seeded U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur avoided an upset by handling
Italian crowd favorite Sara Errani 6-3, 7-5. Stosur was last year’s Italian
Open runner-up to former No. 1 Maria Sharapova.

Eighth-seeded reigning French Open champion Li Na, of China, got past Czech
veteran Iveta Benesova 6-1, 7-5, while another upset came when capable German
Julia Goerges drubbed seventh-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-1.

In other second-round action involving seeds, No. 12 German Angelique Kerber
whipped American Vania King 6-3, 6-2 and No. 14 Slovak Dominika Cibulkova
edged out Italian wild card Karin Knapp 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.

South African Chanelle Scheepers overcame New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic 5-7,
6-1, 6-2, while Italian favorite Flavia Pennetta dismissed American qualifier
Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-3, and Romanian Sorana Cirstea leveled Swede Sofia
Arvidsson 6-3, 6-1 in some other second-round play.

The 2012 Rome titlist will collect $385,000.