Sluggish Serena through to third round

NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) Serena Williams cleared another hurdle in her quest for a third US Open title but continued her inconsistent play in a 7-5 6-2 second-round victory over Italian Maria Elena Camerin.

Williams, a little rusty having not played tournament tennis since losing to Justine Henin in the Wimbledon quarter-finals, made 19 unforced errors and narrowly avoided a first-set tiebreaker against 76th-ranked Camerin yesterday.

''I played better than my first round,'' said 25-year-old Williams, who unimpressively beat Germany's Angelique Kerber 6-3 7-5 in her opening match.

''I just want to play a little better each round, as each match goes on.'' Williams, held back by a sore thumb this summer, failed again to demonstrate the quickness she is known for on court, most notably when she stumbled and then whiffed from midcourt on a lob from the Italian in the first set.

But with the score tied at 5-5, Williams found her stride and won eight of the final 10 games.

''I haven't played my best tennis at all in the first two rounds,'' she told reporters. ''I'm glad to have gotten through them.'' Eighth-seeded Williams, winner of eight grand slam titles, said she needed to improve in all facets of her game, particularly her return of serve.

''My return of serve is usually unbelievable,'' she said. ''So I'm just waiting on that to come back. I would like to see that go a little better. Just a little bit of everything.'' In the third round Williams will play Russian Vera Zvonareva, who eliminated Maria Sharapova from the Australian Open in the round of 16 earlier this year.

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