Williams Rallies Against Raymond

Even when she was down a set and trailing, 5-2, Thursday in the second to Lisa Raymond, a 32-year-old veteran who has always relished testing her slice backhand and square volleys on grass, Venus Williams didn’t sweat.

Williams, the defending champion and seeded sixth, began moving with more purpose and striking her forehand cleanly -- winning 11 of the next 13 games and recovering for a second-round 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-2 Wimbledon victory.

There was a stretch in which Williams won 18 straight points and Raymond, who is one of the shortest players on tour at 5 feet 5, was left scrambling fruitlessly after balls that passed her stretched-out racket hand.

Williams won six of her last seven service games at love. “I felt I was playing well,” she said. “I didn’t feel I was out of the match.”

Raymond, who has been to Wimbledon’s fourth round four times and the quarterfinals once, said she felt lucky when her first-round opponent, Yaroslava Shvedova, had to withdraw because of an injury while leading, 5-3, in the first set.

“The tennis gods caught up to me,” Raymond said. “I got a bit lucky in the first round, I put myself in a perfect position to win this match and then just didn’t get it done. I was serving for the match and I didn’t get one first serve in that game. I think I just rushed.”

Williams, who said her father and coach Richard told her, “You’re a good fighter, V,” admitted she was proud of herself. “When I was down, all I was thinking was that I just had to break her once and if I did, it would be very tough for her to break me again. And I don’t think she did.”

*

Andy Roddick, a finalist here the last two years, played a dominating match in the second round while beating Florian Mayer of Germany, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2, in 1 hour 9 minutes. “It feels good to routine anybody right now,” said Roddick, who struggled through a four-set first round. “Yesterday I was backing off a little bit. My brother told me today if I overdo anything I should overdo aggressiveness instead of passiveness.”

Roddick got another break. His third-round opponent will be the winner of a match between 19-year-old Andy Murray of Scotland and Julien Benneteau. After Murray won the first two sets, 7-6 (5), 6-4, he lost the third, 4-6, and the match was suspended because of darkness.

Lleyton Hewitt also was stuck with an unfinished second-round match after he split four sets with Hyung-Taik Lee of South Korea. Lee won the first and fourth sets, 7-6 (4) and 7-5 (5), and Hewitt took the middle two, 6-2 and 7-6 (6). Hewitt, seeded sixth, walked off the court muttering to himself.

*

Maria Sharapova, seeded fourth and 2004 champion here, said she is listening to a lot of Nelly Furtado on her iPod these days.

“She sounds really rebellious,” Sharapova said. “Before she used to sing these really slow and emotional songs. Now she’s just getting to the point.”

As is Sharapova. She beat Ashley Harkleroad, 6-2, 6-2, in under an hour to move into a third-round match with another American, 33-year-old Amy Frazier.

In the fourth round of Wimbledon during her championship run, Sharapova beat Frazier, 6-4, 7-5, and Frazier had leads in both sets.

*

Top-seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France, a three-time semifinalist here, beat Raymond’s doubles partner, Samantha Stosur of Australia, 6-4, 6-2.

Afterward, Mauresmo was asked if she would give up her No. 1 computer ranking for a Wimbledon title. “Yeah, why not?” she said.