Venus Williams Marches on at The Australian Open

Over 15,000 people packed Rod Laver Stadium to see Australia's native daughter, Casey Dellacqua, possibly pull an upset. Could she do it? Would she be able to make only her second career visit to the second week of the Open? Australians were hoping she could. The only obstacle though was the No. 6 seed Venus Williams.

In the first set, it appeared that just maybe Casey could advance. After Venus took an early 1-0 lead, Casey countered and evened things back up at 1-1. But unfortunately, that would be the only point scored in the first set.

The interesting thing about this set, however, was Venus was off her game at times. She had a number of unforced errors, golden opportunities for Casey. For example, she had five break points. But unfortunately, Casey would not be able to capitalize on any of them.

But to be honest and fair, it was entirely her fault in not being able to utilize these advantages. You see the spectacular thing about Venus is immediately after making an error, she is able to aggressively defend it. And that is exactly what she did.

Venus won the set, 6-1.

In the second set, I have to give Casey her props, she came alive. She showed that she has skill, giving her fans hope again. She was serving and returning quite well, thus forcing Venus to work in this set. But we are talking about a seven-time Grand Slam champion. Despite both ladies dealing with unforced errors, Venus triumphed.

Here are some highlights of the action in the second set:

• Casey was up 5-4, but Venus battled back to an even 5-5
• Casey was able to finally take advantage of her eighth break point, but only as a result of a double fault by Venus (Venus was three of seven for break points)
• Casey was up 6-5, but once again, Venus battled back to make it 6-6, forcing a tie breaker
• In the tie breaker, despite Casey saving three match points, Venus fired an ace on the fourth match point

In the end, Venus came away with the win, 7-6, thus ending Casey's dream run.

Venus heads into the fourth round to face the No. 17 seed Francesca Schiavone.