Venus Williams battles into Miami Open third round

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American tennis star Venus Williams battled from behind in both sets against Russia's Natalia Vikhlyantseva to book her place in the third round of the Miami Open here on Saturday.

The eighth-seed, who made it to the semi-finals of the Indian Wells last week, registered a straight-sets 7-5, 6-4 win over Vikhlyantseva in a second-round clash that lasted two hours and seven minutes.

Venus trailed 5-2 in the opening set before she went on to win five straight games, while she was also slumping by 0-3 in the second set before winning six of the last seven games to eventually prevail her Russian opponent.

After clinching a win, Venus admitted that her opponent smashed some really unexpected shots, however, she somehow managed to find a way to win this match.

"She hit every unexpected shot and what can you do except clap on those shots? Thankfully, I was able to find a way to win this match. At the end, you try to win the last point and walk towards the net as the winner of the last point. I think that's what I worked towards, and got there," the WTA quoted Venus, as saying.

With the win, Venus is now standing just 13 victories behind her sister Serena (75-9) on the all-time Miami Open win list.

She will next lock horns with No.29-seeded Kiki Bertens of Netherlands in the third round of the women's singles event.