Venus Williams surged, faded and then kicked again to finally advance to the quarterfinals of the Cellular South Cup on Tuesday night. The five-time Grand Slam champion opened a commanding 6-4, 4-0 lead over 16-year-old Caroline Wozniacki only to see the Dane claw her way back to 4-4.

Williams steadied to go ahead 5-4 and then needed four match points before breaking Wozniacki for the sixth time of the match on her fourth match point of the game to close out the match 6-4, 6-4.

Williams said of her fadeout: "I played a loose point and then started to make some errors and she did a good job to keep getting the ball back. She kept it close.

"But overall this match was definitely better (than the first round). There were streaks of good play and at 4-all I picked up my game... With my mentality I'd love to win the title but it's just one step at a time; I can't rush it. It's nice to be in the quarterfinals."

Defending champion Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden recovered from a second-set fadeout to defeat Ekaterina Bychkova of Russia, 6-3, 0-6, 6-4. Arvidsson had only won one WTA-level match since last year's US Open before returning to Memphis to defend her title, but did win the singles and doubles titles at the ITF event in Saint Paul last week.

"Since winning here in Memphis last year it's been up and down," she said. "There were a lot of expectations. It's all about confidence. I'm happy to be here and doing my best. I feel I am on the right way again."

Top seed Shahar Peer of Israel defeated Emma Laine of Finland 6-4, 6-3, in first round action on Tuesday in the Racquet Club of Memphis. Peer will take on Milagros Sequera of Venezuela in second round play on Wednesday.

Fourth-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia eliminated Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-2, 7-5. Stosur faces Camille Pin of France. Pin had little trouble with Varvara Lepchenko of Uzbekistan 7-5, 6-1.

The only seed to lose on Tuesday was No. 8 Jill Craybas, who lost her second round match to Meilen Tu 6-3, 6-1. Jarmila Gajdosova of the Slovak Republic defeated Eva Birnerova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3.