Submitted by admin on Tue, 2007-03-27 08:00. ::
But the verbal barbs coming from a heckler in the stands were harder for Williams to brush off. A man in a black hat sitting in the first few rows heckled Williams much of the match and yelled a racist epithet when she served at 4-4 in the second set.
It was after that insult Williams complained to the chair umpire, and the man was removed from the stadium by tournament security when fans pointed him out. Williams' sisters, Isha and Lyndrea, and actress Kristin Davis of "Sex and the City," who was a guest of the Williams family, were sitting near the heckler and confirmed what Williams heard.
"I really should have said something earlier," Williams said. "At some points he said something that was very derogatory, everything you could think of. It was outrageous. I couldn't believe what he said. It threw me off. I shouldn't have let it bother me because growing up in Compton we had drive-bys, and I guess that's what my dad prepared me for, but I'm not going to stand for it."
Williams was relieved to hear the man won't be back for today's match against her rival, Sharapova, whom she can hardly wait to play. Williams dominated Sharapova 6-1, 6-2 in the Australian Open final two months ago, and she has added incentive because Sharapova beat Williams' sister, Venus, on Sunday.
Other big names who advanced Monday were No. 1 Roger Federer, who beat Nicolas Almagro 7-5, 6-3; No. 2 Justine Henin, who eliminated Vera Zvonareva, 6-3, 6-2; No. 6 Nadia Petrova, who beat No. 10 Dinara Safina in an all-Russian match; and Tommy Robredo, who got past Florian Mayer.
The three notable upsets of the day were Amer Delic of the United States beating No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko; Isreali teen Shahar Peer defeating defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova; and Na Li of China sending off No. 4 Kim Clijsters, who is retiring after this season.
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