( CNN ) -- World No . 1 Serena Williams survived the longest match of her career to bounce back from her Rome disappointment and reach the third round of the Madrid Open on Monday . The American was kept on court for almost three and a half hours by the 43rd-ranked Vera Dushevina before prevailing 6-7 ( 2-7 ) 7-6 ( 7-5 ) 7-6 ( 7-5 ) on the clay surface . Williams had beaten the Russian convincingly in straight sets in their past two encounters , the most recent in Sydney in January , but needed to save a match-point at 6-5 down in the second set and also had to battle back from a 4-0 deficit in the deciding tie-break . The 28-year-old was relieved to go through to a tie against either 16th seed Nadia Petrova having squandered a match-point in her semifinal defeat by Jelena Jankovic at the Italian Open on Friday . `` I felt really bad about losing last time when I had match-point , so I just wanted to hang in there today , '' she told the tournament 's official Web site . `` I feel really proud because I definitely was n't playing my best tennis -- I was far off from playing well . A match after three hours , at that point it 's like , ' I 'm not going to lose after three hours , I 'd better win . ' '' In Monday 's other second-round clashes , Serena 's fourth-seeded older sister Venus beat Russia 's Vera Zvonareva 7-5 6-3 . Venus next faces Italian 15th seed Francesca Schiavone , who crushed Austria 's Sybille Bammer 6-2 6-1 . In the final first-round ties , world No . 2 Caroline Wozniacki crushed qualifier Petra Kvitova 6-4 6-2 , while third-ranked Dinara Safina suffered a shock 7-6 7-6 defeat against Czech qualifier Kara Zakopalova . Eighth seed Samantha Stosur beat Argentina 's Gisela Dulko 7-6 ( 7-3 ) 7-5 , and the Australian will face Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez on Tuesday , with the Spaniard having a bye after beating Jankovic in Saturday 's Italian Open final . Jankovic will play fellow Serbian Ana Ivanovic in a battle of former world No . 1s after both were given first-round byes . Petrova won her first-round tie against compatriot Elena Vesnina , triumphing 4-6 6-2 6-3 , while Chinese 13th seed Li Na beat Spain 's Beatriz Garcia Vidagany 6-0 6-2 to set up a clash with Slovakia 's Dominika Cibulkova . Italian 14th seed Flavia Pennetta defeated Romania 's Sorona Cirstea 6-1 1-6 6-1 to earn a second-round clash with German Andrea Petkovic . But 10th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus retired while 3-0 down against Chinese wildcard Shuai Peng , who will now play Israel 's Shahar Peer or Russian Alisa Kleybanova .
Serena Williams survives longest match of her career to reach third round of Madrid Open . World No . 6 beats unseeded Russian Vera Dushevina 6 -7 ( 2-7 ) 7 -6 ( 2-7 ) 6 -6 ( 7-5 ) Russian will next play either Eighth seed Nadia Petrova or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova . Eighth seed Samantha Stosur wins to set up clash with Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez .