NEW YORK - Venus Williams was made to work harder than expected at the US Open tennis championships today when she battled past Ioana Raluca Olaru, of Romania, 6-4 6-2 to reach the third round.
The Wimbledon champion and 12th seed hit six double faults and was alittle ragged but won through to a match against 21st seed Alona Bondarenko, of Ukraine, or Greek Eleni Daniilidou.
Williams looked to be heading for a quick win when she surged to a 5-2 lead but world No 84 Olaru showed some good retrieving skills to get back on serve at 4-5.
The American broke again to win the set and then eased through the second to book her place in the next round.
It was the total opposite for Belgium's Justine Henin as the top seed eased into the third round with a 6-4 6-0 win over Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova.
The world No 1, bidding for her second US Open title, blasted 22 winners as she wrapped up victory in 68 minutes.
The 19-year-old Pironkova, ranked No 130, matched Henin for the first eight games but the Belgian broke in the ninth game and served out for the first set.
It was all one-way traffic from that moment on and Henin cruised through to the next round where she will meet Russian qualifier Ekaterina Makarova.
Fifth seed Ana Ivanovic also advanced through to the third round with a 6-3 6-1 win over France's Aravane Rezai.
The 19-year-old Serb trailed 3-1 in the opening set but stormed back to set up a meeting with Russian Vera Dushevina.
