Venus, Nadal, Azarenka advance at Miami

Venus Williams, in only her second WTA match after a long illness layoff, upset world number three Petra Kvitova on Friday to reach the third round of the WTA and ATP Miami hardcourt tournament. World number two Rafael Nadal cruised in his opener and women's top seed Victoria Azarenka stretched her win streak to 24 matches at the $9.6 million event, but seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Williams stole the show.
"It's definitely a big step forward," Williams said after her 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 win. "To win these matches definitely a lot of it is mental, to get out there and believe you're going to win and execute. "How I'm going to do, I never really know, so it's great to have a win like this. It's definitely satisfying."
Williams withdrew from last year's US Open with the auto-immune disorder Sjogren's syndrome, an illness that saps energy and causes joint pain. Her first tournament match since then was a first-round triumph on Wednesday. Kvitova was impressed with how well Williams played after seven months away in booking a third-round match-up with Canadian wildcard Aleksandra Wozniak, who defeated Romania's Monica Niculescu 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Spanish second seed Nadal began his quest for a first-ever Miami title by ousting Colombia's Santiago Giraldo 6-2, 6-0 in 69 minutes, saying it was not as easy a victory as he made it seem.
"I played a very solid match with no mistakes," Nadal said. "No match is easy, even if the score was very easy because 6-2, 6-0 is a big difference in the score but not in the tennis. You have to fight every point. You have to find solutions every moment." Women's world number one Azarenka eliminated Dutch player Michaella Krajicek 6-3, 7-5. Azarenka broke as Krajicek served for the second set, then held and broke again to close out the match after one hour and 42 minutes. World number four Andy Murray eased into the third round by dispatching Colombia's Alejandro Falla 6-2, 6-3, avoiding a repeat of an embarrassing early ouster in Indian Wells.