Black Tennis Pros

Monday evening in Miami at the Sony Ericsson Open, it appeared that Slovak Daniela Hantuchova was headed toward having beat down bragging rights over American Venus Williams after taking the first set 6-1. Hantuchova was pumped and moving the match along quickly as she continued to play well into the second set.

Venus, being the phoenix that she is, would not be kept down, but definitely had work to do. She steadily improved her game and played with greater focus the longer the match went on. The third set break over Hantuchova that put Venus up 5-4 and virtually sealed the match, was followed in the final game by an eventual three match points for Venus. The final score was 1-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Post match Venus said, “I haven’t seen her play so well in a long time. Obviously I needed to do something and when times get tough I hit harder. It’s just me. It’s natural for me.”

"Days like this you just have to figure out a way to win the point, even if it's not pretty. I enjoy that battle. ... When it counts and times get tough, I always feel confident that I'm going to find a way to win the point."

Holding up the red, white and blue all by her lonesome, Venus will next meet Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinal round.

Serena sat in the stands and cheered her big sister on, as she had to withdraw from the tournament due to injury.