Williams struggles, advances to quarters

NEW YORK — Venus Williams struggled with her serve. She kept tugging at her dress. Every bit as big a nuisance was her opponent, Shahar Peer.

On a Sunday afternoon in which Kim Clijsters and Rafael Nadal cruised to their victories at the U.S. Open, the third-seeded Williams never looked quite comfortable in hers. She defeated the 16th-seeded Peer 7-6 (3), 6-3 on the second consecutive windy day in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Williams got only 48 percent of her first serves in. She faced six break points and lost three. She squandered five chances to wrap up the first set in a 22-point 12th game. As for the dress - a red “daytime” version of the black, sequined number she wore two nights previously - well, she spent much of the match tugging at it to keep it at barely high-thigh level.

“No,” she said when asked if the dress bothered her. “The only thing that bothered me was when I didn’t win the point, I think. That was it.”

After the Williams match, the top-seeded Nadal took the court and experienced no such trouble. He faced only one break point - and saved it - in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Frenchman Gilles Simon. Nadal has gone 46 or 46 in service games through his first three U.S. Open matches.

This was the easiest match of the three.

“Today was a solid match, I think,” Nadal said. “The serve is still good, so that’s a very important thing. From the baseline, I think my movements and my shots start to improve, to be better every day.”

In the fourth round, Nadal will play No. 23 Feliciano Lopez, who won when Sergiy Stakovshy retired with a toe injury. No. 10 Gil Ferrer and No. 8 Fernando Verdasco also advanced - meaning all four players left in Nadal’s section of the draw are Spaniards.

Williams’ next match is a quarterfinal against No. 6 Francesca Schiavone, who had few problems in a 6-3, 6-0 victory over 20th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Williams likely will need to play better to get past Schiavone after a match in which the two time champion looked more like someone who was trying to find her form - which she is after missing most of August with an injured left kneecap - than someone breezing her way through the draw.

“We always have had very competitive matches, so I know it’s not going to be something I just walk through when I play against her,” Williams said of the matchup against Peer. “I have to stay focused and ready to take every point or else she will. It was a good challenge.”

Serving intelligently and handling Williams’ power, Peer was surprisingly game, even though she fell to 0-6 lifetime in the matchup and has yet to win a set. Trailing 6-5 and serving to stay in the first set, Peer staved off five set points before finally winning a game that took more than 12 minutes.

But Williams overpowered her in the tiebreaker to wrap up an opening set that took 1 hour, 8 minutes.

“It’s not new that I’m trying to win and fighting for every ball and hanging in there every point,” Peer said. “But I do think it can give me more for the future, because every time I played Venus I had tough time and she was always kind of killing me every match.”

While Williams is the only American woman left in the draw, the men have a number of candidates. No. 20 Sam Querrey pulled off a mild third round upset, defeating No. 14 Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. No. 18 John Isner lost to No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (5), 6-4 despite hitting 33 aces Sunday night. No. 19 Mardy Fish plays his fourth round match today against No. 3 Novak Djokovic.

“Hopefully we can have someone win a Grand Slam,”Querrey said. “That’s what we need. John and Mardy and myself, the three guys left, we’re trying our best.”

No. 25-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland upset No. 4 Andy Murray of Britain 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3 in the only significant surprise Sunday.

Back on the women’s side, the second-seeded Clijsters put a quick end to Ana Ivanovic’s nice run at Flushing Meadows, winning her 18th consecutive U.S. Open match with a 6-2, 6-1 wipe out of the former world No. 1.

Ivanovic, who fell to as low as No. 65 after a couple of injury-plagued years, has gotten back to No. 40 and was trying to move higher. She won three matches at the U.S. Open and was getting her biggest test - and opportunity - against the defending champion.

It wasn’t much of a contest.

After regaining an early break to pull within 3-2 in the first, Ivanovic got overpowered, losing seven consecutive games to turn the match into a rout. Clijsters, moving as well as anyone in the tournament, used heavy, deep ground strokes to pressure Ivanovic into 28 unforced errors. Looking like the more comfortable player, Clijsters fought through the wind and took command.

“She’s playing with a lot more confidence,” Clijsters said, in describing her mindset going against Ivanovic. “I can stay with her in the beginning of those first few games where she was playing really good tennis, if I could just stay with her and kind of just, make her doubt once in a while.”U.S. Open glance

NEW YORK - A look at Sunday’s play at the $22.7 million U.S. Open tennis championships: WEATHER Sunny and beautiful. High of 76.

MEN’S SEEDED WINNERS Third Round: No. 1 Rafael Nadal, No. 8 Fernando Verdasco, No. 10 David Ferrer, No. 20 Sam Querrey, No. 23 Feliciano Lopez and No. 25 Stanislas Wawrinka.

MEN’S SEEDED LOSERS No. 4 Andy Murray, No. 14 Nicolas Almagro and No. 31 David Nalbandian.

WOMEN’S SEEDED WINNERS Fourth Round: No. 2 Kim Clijsters, No. 3 Venus Williams and No. 6 Francesca Schiavone.

WOMEN’S SEEDED LOSERS No. 16 Shahar Peer and No. 20 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

ON COURT TODAY Men, Fourth Round: No. 2 Roger Federer vs. No. 13 Jurgen Melzer, No. 3 Novak Djokovic vs. No. 19 Mardy Fish, No. 5 Robin Soderling vs. No. 21 Albert Montanes, No. 17 Gael Monfils vs. Richard Gasquet. Women, Fourth Round: No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki vs. No. 14 Maria Sharapova, No. 7 Vera Zvonareva vs. Andrea Petkovic, No. 11 Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Dominika Cibulkova, No. 15 Yanina Wickmayer vs. No. 31 Kaia Kanepi.

TODAY ON TV (All times Central): CBS, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (live); ESPN2, 6-10 p.m. (live); Tennis Channel, 10-11 p.m. (highlights).

STAT OF THE DAY Rafael Nadal has won all 46 of his service games.

QUOTE OF THE DAY “The two first sets were nice. I had some problem with my return today. I missed a lot of return. And then the third set. I have to say I was already on the plane.” - Gilles Simon, after losing to Rafael Nadal. Simon’s wife gave birth to their first child on Thursday.