Sisterly Sweep

The notes you sometimes see Serena Williams scribbling during changeovers are not future flight plans, entries for her blog or a Beijing shopping list. Williams, who sometimes jots down notes during matches as a means to reinforce her technique, did not need any reminders for the appropriate course of action when facing double break point at 1-0 in the final set of today's doubles match against Nicole Vaidisova and Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic.
 
Conferring briefly with older sister Venus, Serena supplanted the jot with a jolt.
 
Venus slammed an overhead to save the first break point before Serena smacked three straight aces to turn the hole into a hold.
 
That four-point sequence proved to be the pivotal point of the match as the Williams sisters powered past Benesova and Vaidisova, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 to advance the round of 16 at the Beijing Olympic Games.
 
It was a sisters' sweep as Venus and Serena both won singles matches prior to moving on in doubles. The Williams sisters, who met in a Grand Slam singles final for the sixth time at Wimbledon last month, are in opposite sides of the Beijing singles draw and could face off in the final.
 
"That would be fantastic," Venus said. "Obviously it's a long ways away, but the third round makes it closer. I'm really excited for both of us to be playing really well for the U.S."
 
The Williams sisters, reunited in the Olympics for the first time since they won the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, joined fellow Americans Lindsay Davenport and Liezel Huber in the last 16 of the doubles draw.
 
Davenport, who withdrew from the singles event last Friday due to a strained right knee, and Huber broke serve seven times in a 6-2, 6-1 58-minute victory over Poland's Klaudia Jans and Alicja Rosolska. The fifth-seeded team of Davenport/Huber will play either Belarus' Victoria Azarenka and Tatiana Poutchek or Estonia's Kaia Kanepi and Ani Maret for a place in the quarterfinals.
 
The sisters preceded their doubles win with a pair of resounding singles victories: Venus beat Benesova, 6-1, 6-4, and Serena slammed Samantha Stosur of Australia, 6-2, 6-0, in 44 minutes. Serena surrendered only three points on her first serve and delivered eight aces in the singles victory.
 
"I've never played singles at the Olympics, so this has been really cool for me," Serena said. "Every time I walk out there, it's like I'm playing in my match, but at the same time I have the whole U.S. team on my side. It's good. I really like that feeling."
 
The fourth-seeded Serena will face 15th-seeded French woman Alize Cornet for a place in the quarterfinals. 
 
"It was clean," Serena said. "I played really clean matches in the past and the next one would be kind of streaky. I don't want to do that any more."
 
Seventh-seeded Venus Williams will take on 12th-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
 
The sisters, who won the Wimbledon doubles title last month, blew open a tight doubles match with superior serving in the final set.
 
After Venus held to stretch the lead to 3-1, the Williams sisters broke the left-handed Benesova. Serena  smacked another ace to extend the lead to 5-1. A Vaidisova volley found the net on the second match point as the sisters moved on to the round of 16.

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