Flushing Meadows, NY – Two-time champion Venus Williams pulled out of the U.S. Open on Wednesday due to an unspecified illness.
The unseeded Williams was scheduled to meet 22nd-seeded German Sabine Lisicki in a second-round match on Day 3, but Lisicki, instead, will now enjoy a walkover into the round of 32.
The rising Lisicki is fresh off her hardcourt title in Dallas last week and was a Wimbledon semifinalist last month.
Williams has battled injuries for most of this 2011 season and hadn't played any tennis since losing in the fourth round at Wimbledon last month before returning with an easy opening-round victory against Russian Vesna Dolonts here on Monday.
The former world No. 1 and seven-time Grand Slam champion titled here back-to- back in 2000 and 2001 and is also a two-time runner-up in Flushing.
On the court Wednesday, last year's U.S. Open runner-up Vera Zvonareva posted a second-round win.
The second-seeded Russian snuck past Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 on another beautiful day at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Zvonareva survived in 2 hours, 7 minutes despite amassing 46 unforced errors.
"I think I didn't play my best tennis, but I managed to go, to get through this one," Zvonareva said. "I gave myself another chance to go out there and next time and try to do a little bit better."
Zvonareva was dismantled by Belgian star Kim Clijsters in last year's U.S. Open finale and was also the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2010.
Up next for the Russian star will be Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues.
A big Day-3 upset came when American teenager Christina McHale upended eighth- seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 7-6 (7-2), 6-2. McHale is a promising 19- year-old from New Jersey.
The 26-year-old Bartoli is a former Wimbledon runner-up who reached the 2011 Wimbledon semifinals last month and has appeared in four finals this season, including a title at a Wimbledon tuneup in Eastbourne back in June.
Thirteenth-seeded Chinese Peng Shuai cruised past Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 6-4, while 19th-seeded German Julia Goerges grounded Spaniard Laura Pous- Tio 6-3, 6-1.
Meanwhile, 24th-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova handled Slovenian Polona Hercog 6-2, 6-4; 25th-seeded Maria Kirilenko leveled fellow Russian Vera Dushevina 6-1, 6-2; 27th-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova overcame 16-year-old Illinois native Madison Keys 3-6, 7-5, 6-4; and a 30th-seeded Medina Garrigues grounded Britain's Laura Robson 6-2, 6-3 at the year's final Grand Slam event.
Another second-round winner on Day 3 of the fortnight was Monica Niculescu, who drilled fellow unseeded Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru 6-3, 6-0.
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