Robson swaps one Williams sister for another

The British No 1 made light of difficult, blustery conditions to see off the former world No 1, who was plainly struggling with the back injury that has blighted her season so far.

But it was a fine performance from 19-year-old Robson, who showed no ill effects from her final set collapse against Ana Ivanovic last week which cost her a place in the Madrid quarter-finals.

Robson made a rocky start, serving two double-faults in her opening service game and saving two break points, but hit back to break Williams in the next game to take a 2-1 lead.

Williams, playing only her second clay-court event of the season following her return from injury, then double-faulted to hand Robson a double break.

The American had plenty of chances in the first set and spurned 10 break point chances before taking her 11th when Robson served for the set, only for the Briton to quickly respond with a third break to take the opener.

Robson, whose contrasting week in Madrid also included a career-best win over world 
No 4 Agnieszka Radwanska, was in dominant form and continued her good form into the second.

With Williams beginning to struggle, Robson looked set to blaze home, breaking twice to go 5-1 up, but had to wait for her victory as Williams briefly rallied to claw back one break.

But Robson took advantage of her third match point chance on the Williams serve with a big backhand to wrap up an excellent win.

Ninth seed Sam Stosur advanced with a 6-2 6-3 win over Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei, while Jelena Jankovic eased past former Wimbledon semi-finalist Tsvetana Pironkova 6-3 6-0.

Germany’s Sabine Lisicki saw off American qualifier Mallory Burdette 6-1 6-2 and there were also early wins for Melanie Oudin, Shuai Peng, Ayumi Morita and Garbine Muguruza.

In the men’s draw, 11th-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic needed only 73 minutes to see off Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev 6-4 6-2.

Qualifiers Albert Montanes, Ernests Gulbis and Andrey Kuznetsov also advanced with wins over Martin Klizan, Jarkko Nieminen and Xavier Malisse respectively.

Italy’s Potito Starace saw off Czech veteran Radek Stepanek 4-6 6-4 6-3, while Benoit Paire, Jerzy Janowicz, Fabio Fognini and Albert Ramos were also winners.