Wozniacki and Williams march on

Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams both won their second-round matches at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.

World number seven Elena Dementieva was a casualty, the fifth seed being forced to withdraw against Daniela Hantuchova who was leading 6-4 1-1.

Wozniacki, the world number three, started strongly in her opening match against Dominika Cibulkova to take the first set.

However, the second set was more keenly contested, the Dane finding herself 5-1 down before she fought back to win on a tie-break and claim a 6-2 7-6 (7/2) victory.

Wozniacki said: "In the second set I just kept fighting. Even though I was 5-1 down, I fought for every point and it paid off in the end. I started to play more relaxed.

"I started playing more aggressively and hit deeper because that's how I would have had to play in case I went to a third - but I didn't have to and I was happy about that."

Williams, seeded third, eased through 6-2 6-3 against Sabine Lisicki of Germany, while second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova had a walkover when Anabel Medina Garrigues withdrew with a back injury. Fourth seed Victoria Azarenka was also helped out in her match with Kateryna Bondarenko when the Ukrainian retired with a left knee sprain when 4-1 down in the first set.

Other seeds to progress were Jelena Jankovic, who had to come from a set down to beat world number 21 Aravane Rezai 4-6 6-4 7-5, Li Na, who also needed three sets to prevail over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Flavia Pennetta, Marion Bartoli and Vera Zvonereva - a 6-0 6-0 winner over Kirsten Flipkens.