India's Sania Mirza gave Wimbledon champion Venus Williams a scare before going down to a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 defeat in the second round of the WTA claycourt tournament here on Wednesday. Second seeded Williams, who was champion in Charleston in 2004, needed two hours to see off Mirza for her third successive win over the Indian golden girl.
Mirza, 22, did well to take the match to a third set decider. The world number 100 was down a set and 3-1 in the second set before she went on a run of five straight games. Mirza even broke the American world number four's serve twice in the final set, but she then surrendered the last five games of the tie, wilting under the Williams barrage. Williams, whose sister Serena was champion here in 2008, next faces German 16th seed Sabine Lisicki for a place in the last eight.