Sunday, October 5 2008 -- October 2, Stuttgart, Germany - The road to the quarterfinals did apparently not seem that daunting to tennis pro Venus Williams. She easily defeated Kateryna Bondarenko with a score of 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday in a match that lasted for 66 minutes. Williams was seeded at 6th and was able to serve 12 aces during the course of the match. This victory came at the heels of her sister Serena’s loss to Chinese player Li Na, the defeat which resulted to the loss of her number 1 ranking.

"She played really well," Williams said pertaining to Bondarenko. "She had an early break and I needed to break her back. I felt comfortable on the court."

Venus Williams is scheduled to play Safina next, a first time meeting for both players. Safina has won four titles this year and had risen to a career ranking of number 3. Safina joins Williams and two other Russians, Vera Zvonareva and Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals. She earlier defeated Bulgarian player Tsvetana Pironkova with a score of 6-1, 7-6 (6), while Zvonareva got to the QF by defeating Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli. Nadia Petrova, on the other hand, arrived at the QF by defeating Patty Schnyder.

So far, Venus’ only title for this year was the one she won in Wimbledon. This is also the first time in ten years that the American player has played in Stuttgart.