KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. – Serena Williams brushed aside Kim Clijsters,
then pushed aside talk of controversy.
|  | | Venus Williams defeated Tathiana Garbin 7-5, 7-6 (2) at the Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla., on Monday to advance to the quarterfinals. |
The fifth-seeded Williams needed only 43 minutes to gain a
quarterfinal berth Monday at the $6.12 million Ericsson Open but
could not escape the incident involving her family at Indian
Wells last week.
Williams was pushed to three sets by Clijsters last week in the
final at Indian Wells but coasted to a smooth 6-0, 6-2 rout of
the 11th seed from Belgium in Monday's fourth-round encounter.
Serena's opponent Wednesday will be No. 4 Jennifer Capriati. The
Australian Open champion beat Tamarine Tanasurgarn 6-4, 6-0.
However, the talk of the tennis world remained fixed on last
week's semifinal between Serena and her older sister Venus, who
pulled out at the last minute with right knee tendinitis.
Fans were miffed and raised questions about whether Richard
Williams, who also coaches his daughters, made the decision not
to have them compete against each other – an issue raised by a
cover story in the National Enquirer. The bitterness carried
over to the women's final, where Serena was booed throughout her
win over Clijsters.
"I don't understand why they did that," Serena said. "At first,
I didn't understand. I was just walking out in the final of a
big Tier I event. I was pretty excited. I was like, 'Wow, this
is weird. Why are they even booing?' Then it kicked in. I
thought maybe it was because they were unhappy about what
happened in the semifinals. But you can't always believe what
you read."
So far, the Williams sisters have received a warm reception from
the crowd in Florida, where they reside. Those warm feelings
made a bit of difference for Serena Williams against Clijsters
on Monday as she broke the 17-year-old five times and hit 17
winners, compared to only four for her opponent.
"Last time I played (her) it was under different circumstances,
obviously," she said. "The fans were behind me. I always have
a good crowd here, they're always so friendly. That's usually
(the way) everywhere we go.
"The difference today was I really focused, I was really
prepared. Last week is behind me. It's last week and no matter
what I can do, I can't go back and I don't want to go back. It's
gone."
But as much as Serena Williams would like to put the issue to
rest, Richard Williams kept things alive when he told USA Today
on Monday that the fans at Indian Wells targeted racial slurs at
his family. He also stated he does not ask either of his
daughters to lose a match.
"I understand that he did make comments, but I don't really read
the papers. I keep to myself," Serena said. "My dad never told
me. I'm glad he didn't because I would have been a little more
emotional about it. So fathers and parents know what's best to
do for their child. They try to safeguard them and keep them in
a bubble, so if something hits it, it just bounces off and I
won't be able to feel it.
"Just seems like the Williams sisters are always involved in
some type of preposterous and ridiculous controversy. Just
preposterous. I think we do very well considering we've been on
a lot of covers of all the wrong magazines."
Venus, seeded third, defeated Italy's Tathiana Garbin 7-5, 7-6 (2) on Monday in a bid for her third title here. She is 18-1
at this event, winning it in 1998 and 1999.
Top seed Martina Hingis of Switzerland continued defense of her
title with a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Magui Serna of Spain. Hingis
will face Anke Huber in the quarterfinals.
The 10th-seeded German came back against No. 8 Nathalie Tauziat
of France, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Second seed Lindsay Davenport, last year's runner-up, beat No. 13 Sandrine Testud of France 6-3, 6-1 on
Monday night.
Also, Jelena Dokic ofYugoslavia, defeated sixth-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-3, 7-5, and No. 7 Elena Dementieva of Russia downed
ninth seed and two-time champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of
Spain, 6-1, 6-2.
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ALSO SEE
Monday's results
Richard Williams alleges racist crowd at Indian Wells
Hingis says Williams' claims of racism 'nonsense'
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