By Paul Virgo
ROME (Reuters) - World number one Serena Williams overpowered Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 7-6 6-1 at the Italian Open Tuesday in her first match since the Australian Open final.
But defending champion Dinara Safina, also plagued by injury problems, slumped to a 6-4 6-7 6-1 loss to Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru.
Williams clawed her way back despite a few erratic moments, saving three set points on her opponent's serve before dominating the tiebreak and the second set to book a meeting with Germany's Andrea Petkovic.
Third-seeded Russian Safina, who has missed most of the season with a back injury, also made a sluggish start on clay made heavy by rain and trailed 4-0.
She leveled at 4-4 but surrendered the initiative immediately, skewing an easy volley wide to lose serve on the way to conceding the first set.
She eventually claimed a topsy-turvy second set on a tiebreak before crumbling in the decider.
Venus Williams, another player returning from an injury layoff at the warm-up tournament for the French Open, cruised into the third round with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Swiss Patty Schnyder.
Twice champion Jelena Jankovic of Serbia needed three sets to overcome American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3 3-6 6-1.
