Williams Rallies for Third-Round Win

At least wild-card entrant Serena Williams learned one thing about herself during the latest twist in her comeback journey.

Her survival skills are firmly intact.

She lost the first set against seventh-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and was down an early service break in the second set before staging a spirited comeback Thursday night, winning, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the third round of the JPMorgan Chase Open at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

Nightmare? Williams agreed with that description of the first set. “That sounds like my language,” she said. “It was definitely a nightmare.”

Not only did her progress appear in question, Williams also had an injury scare at 0-5 in the first set. She went tumbling to the ground, hitting the hard court, well, quite hard, as she went to her right, chasing a Hantuchova groundstroke.

Williams took a medical injury timeout in the second set and had her left ankle taped by the tour trainer. Hantuchova, a finalist last year, said she didn’t think Williams was injured and felt the timeout unnecessary. She said she thought Williams moved better after the delay.

“I don’t think it’s the right way to handle things,” she said, pointing out that not only Williams has taken medical timeouts but other players on the tour as well.

Williams called Hantuchova’s comments “kind of childish” and “a shame for taking the low way out.” But she laughed and joked about settling the matter off the court.

The ankle could be more of a concern.

Williams said her ankle was “a little sore and throbbing,” and added: “I’m concerned tomorrow my ankle will be OK. ... I think it should be all right.”

Hantuchova blew the chance to extend her lead to 2-0 in the second set before Williams turned it around, avenging her loss to Hantuchova in the third round at the Australian Open this year.

“I felt like I let her come back. ... I have to give her the credit for the way she was serving, she hit some big shots on big points,” Hantuchova said.

She said Williams looked sharper than she did in Melbourne. “Definitely, she’s moving much better and serving really well,” Hantuchova said.

Williams had 10 aces, double-faulted six times and hit 33 winners to 19 for Hantuchova.

In the quarterfinals, Williams will play Meghann Shaughnessy, and third-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia will face wild-card Bethanie Mattek.

Additionally, there will be an all-Russian matchup between top-seeded Maria Sharapova and No. 5 Dinara Safina at 7 p.m., and an all-Serbian contest featuring No. 10 Ana Ivanovic and No. 16 Jelena Jankovic.

“We are only two players at this level from Serbia ... it is definitely special match,” Ivanovic said, noting that the Russian players are used to playing one another all the time.

Which brings us to Sharapova, who will be seeking some revenge for one of the toughest losses of her career, at the French Open against Safina.

In Paris, Safina rallied from a 1-5 deficit in the third set to defeat Sharapova.

“I don’t feel like I have any more Christmas presents in my suitcase, so I hope I won’t give any more tomorrow,” Sharapova said, smiling.

Sharapova, who had little match play before the French Open because of an injured foot, also suffered a three-set loss to Safina in 2005, at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, and is 0-2 in their last two meetings. They are 2-2 overall, however.