Black Tennis Pros

Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm

LONDON, June 22 -- Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams needed to fight for nearly three hours to edge out the 40- year-old Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm in the women's second round at the 125th Wimbledon Champoinships on Wednesday.

The 23rd seeded Williams met strong challenge from Date-Krumm, who once reached the semifinals at the grass-court Grand Slam 15 years ago, but the American showed her quality as a great champion, eliminating the tough opponent 6-7(8), 6-3 and 8-6.

"It took me a while to adjust in the first set," said Williams, who lost the tiebreak 6-8 in the opening set although she managed to come back from 1-5 down.

"She runs down every ball. She hits every ball basically on the baseline, hard and flat," the seven-time Grand Slam champion talked about Date-Krumm.

"If you get it anywhere near the mid-court, she hits for the corners and comes to the net."

Date-Krumm, once ranked fourth in the world and retired for 12 years before returning to the tour in 2008, admitted that she was very disappointed as she was so close to a daunting win. "But most important, I played my tennis and then I can fight with Venus. She 's a five-time champion here. She's a great player. I can fight with her, so it's a very good match for me."

Williams, absent from the tour for half a year due to injury since Australian Open, will play Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in the third round.