The 1999 Rome champion Venus Williams cruised to the third round of this year’s tournament with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Patty Schnyder. The fourth-ranked Williams, who had a bye in the first round, was playing her first match since a decisive loss to Kim Clijsters in the Sony Ericsson Open final in the beginning of March. The reason for Williams’ layoff was a knee problem, but the time out didn’t prevent the American from extending her career record against Schynder to 10-0.

Defending champion Dinara Safina, seeded third, is still under the radar because of her back injury and the fact that her second-round match in Rome was only her third since January. The Russian world No.3 came back from 4-0 down to level to 4-4 in the first set against Romanian world No.43 Alexandra Dulgheru, before quickly losing the initiative and the set. Safina managed to win the topsy-turvy second set in the tiebreak, before crushing in the decider. Final score: 6-4 6-7(5) 6-1.

I would like to mention one more result: seed No.7 Jelena Jankovic defeated good friend Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3 3-6 6-1 in the second round. (photos: sr_cranks)

World No.3 Dinara Safina hadn’t played on the Tour since January and the Australian Open, and her first match since returning from the back injury was a victory — the Russian defeated Hungary's Agnes Szavay 7-6(5) 3-6 6-0 in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

The win over the 33rd-ranked Szavay is a good sign, as only days ago Safina said that the lower back injury could cause her long-term problems and seriously harm her career.

The unseeded Szavay quickly got to a 4-1 lead in the first set, but Safina fought back to win it in over an hour. After losing the second set, the Russian was in full command in the third.

"I don't know if I am more happy than tired or more tired than happy," said Safina, who turned 24 two days ago. "It is always nice to come back with a win, regardless how."

Safina, last year’s runner-up at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, will play Israel’s Shahar Peer in the quarterfinals. (source: Earth Times, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Dinara Safina hasn't competed since withdrawing from the fourth round of the Australian Open in January and resumed training only on April 3. The Russian former world No.1 entered the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart this week, the tournament at which she was runner-up last year, but will have to watch the state of her back closely in order for the potentially career-threatening injury not to reappear.

"Everybody, including my brother Marat (Safin), told me to take my time but it was really difficult because I wanted to come back on court so badly," said the 24-year-old Safina, seeded second at Stuttgart. "Right now I feel safe and comfortable, but I need to watch closely that it stays that way."

Safina is worried that the injury, which started bothering her in late 2009, could have a serious impact on her future: "My back injury is the worst you can get, because if things go wrong again, that might be it for my professional career altogether." (source: Yahoo, photo: Upali Wickramasinghe)

World No.2 Dinara Safina still hasn't recovered from the back injury which has been bothering her for months, and the 23-year-old Russian will skip the $2,000,000 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships which starts next week.

Because of the same injury, Safina withdrew from last year's Sony Ericsson Championships and this season's Australian Open.

Safina is hoping to return to competition in March, to play the $4.5-million BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. (source: Dinara Safina's official website, photo by chascow)

World No.58 Maria Kirilenko, who took out Maria Sharapova in the first round of the Australian Open, reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal through Dinara Safina’s misfortune of a recurrent back injury.

The second-seeded Safina retired down 5-4 in the opening set of the fourth-round match, with the same low back injury that forced her out of the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha at the end of last season.

Safina’s injury is extremely painful: "I just cannot move anywhere. I mean, the physio asked me to lie on the table. I said, I cannot lie. I cannot make any movement. Whatever I try to move, it hurts terribly." And to make things worse, Safina thinks she may have even worsened the injury because she continued to play the match.

Kirilenko, on the other hand, has problems of her own. She turns 23 on Monday, but will have to postpone her birthday celebrations: "I don't want to get drunk before my next match. It's going to be difficult for me to play then."

Unseeded Kirilenko will play China's Zheng Jie, also unseeded, in the quarterfinals. Zheng holds a 4-1 head-to-head lead over the Russian. (photo via Australian Open)