Former champion Kim Clijsters stunned third seed Venus Williams 6-0, 0-6, 6-4 in a dramatic fourth-round clash at the US Open Sunday. In just her third tournament back after two years away during which time she gave birth to her first child, Clijsters held her nerve to win a topsy-turvy encounter to book her place in the last eight. The Belgian wildcard, who does not even have a ranking yet, played an almost flawless first set as she romped through it in 27 minutes. Venus cut down her errors in the second set and Clijsters went off the boil as the American leveled but the 2005 champion then broke in the third game of the decider and held on to set up a meeting with Li Na of China. Earlier Rafael Nadal encountered as much trouble from his own body as his opponent in a third-round victory at the US Open. The third-seeded Nadal, who missed Wimbledon with sore knees, needed a 10-minute injury break for a trainer to work on his abdominals early in the third set of his 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 32 Nicolas Almagro. The stomach injury first cropped up for Nadal last month at a tournament in Cincinnati. While Nadal laid on the ground to receive treatment, Almagro was laying down to get work done on his back. The Spaniards popped back up and Nadal finished the work, staying in the hunt to complete his career Grand Slam, though it has yet to be seen what kind of toll this match took on him. “I feel it a little bit now, but I'll try my best to recover for the next match,” said Nadal, who has insisted all week that he's been feeling fine. “I'm here to work hard and try my best all the time.” Earlier, No. 2 Serena Williams routed No. 22 Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-0, winning the final 10 games after starting the first set 2-2. Serena has reached the quarterfinals at 11 of the past 12 major tournaments and won the title at three of the past four. She is still seeking her first big test at Flushing Meadows. “I just want to keep this level and just stay focused,” Serena said. In other early action Sunday, 11th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez defeated 17th-seeded Tomas Berdych, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4, and No. 9 Gilles Simon of France retired because of a knee injury while trailing No. 24 Juan Carlos Ferrero 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 1-0. In the other early women's match, No. 18 Li Na of China ousted No. 26 Francesca Schiavone of Italy, 6-2, 6-3. On Saturday, Flushing Meadows shook with an explosion of deafening roars as American sensations John Isner and Melanie Oudin sent former champion Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova spinning out of the US Open. On a day when Russian world No. 1 Dinara Safina's luck and patience finally ran out in the third round, Isner and Oudin sparked off celebrations in their hometown of Georgia after showing off their “bulldog” spirit to full effect. Big-serving Roddick came face-to-face with a 2.06-meter-tall (6-foot-9) player he had mentored up the ranks and as a way of thanks Isner boomed in 38 aces to trample the fifth seed 7-6, 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6. “I'm happy for him. I'm mad that obviously it came at my expense,” summed up Roddick who had hopes of going all the way this year following his runner-up finish at Wimbledon. Oudin beat 29th seed Sharapova 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Safina has long been famed for her fighting spirit and on many occasions has come from match point down to stifle her opponents. But Saturday, 72nd-ranked Czech teenager Petra Kvitova took a leaf out of Safina's Houdini manual and saved three match points before stamping her mark in New York with a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 win as the clock struck 12.47A.M. local time. A clearly irritated Safina then took a swipe at organizers for bumping her off the Ashe arena, where the day's schedule had over-run by almost three hours, and rescheduling her match to the smaller 10,000-seat Louis Armstrong Court. “I'm No. 1 player in the world, why did they move me?” asked Safina, who had survived three-set sweat-fests in her first two matches. “This is not excuse but I don't think it's a fair decision they made.”
