V. Williams tested in second-round match

LONDON, June 22 (UPI) -- Venus Williams battled through a tough three-set match Wednesday before taking a third-round slot at the Wimbledon Championships.

Williams, seeded 23rd this year after injuries limited her play, just got by Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 8-6 in a match that took nearly 3 hours.

Date-Krumm blasted out to a 5-1 lead but Williams stormed back and evened the match at 5-5. Date-Krumm won the tiebreaker but Williams made her earn it, saving seven set points.

Second-seeded Vera Zvonareva also claimed a spot in the third round, topping Elena Vesnina 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) and No. 4-seeded Victoria Azarenka needed just 51 minutes -- 15 in the first set -- to rout Iveta Benesova 6-0, 6-3.

Petra Kvitova, seeded eighth, was also very efficient in a 6-2, 6-1 win over Anne Keothavong and 11th-seeded Andrea Petkovic, in a match that ended after 9 p.m., got by Stephanie Dubois 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

No. 13-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska was up 6-0, 3-0 when Olga Govortsova retired.

Also advancing out of the second round were No. 25 Daniela Hantuchova, 29th-seeded Robert Vinci and 32nd-seeded Tsvetana Pironkova.

Unseeded second-round winners include Ksenia Pervak and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.

First-round winners Wednesday were 16th-seeded Julia Goerges, No. 21 Flavia Pennetta, No. 24 Dominika Cibulkova, 27th-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova, Mathilde Johansson, Sabine Lisicki, Agnieszka Radwanska, Andrea Hlavackova, Zheng Jie, Petra Cetkovska, Evgeniya Rodina, Polona Hercog and Laura Robson.

Also, Misaki Doi ousted 30th-seeded Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 in her first-round match.