Tennis: Golovin Knocks Venus Williams Out of Family Circle Cup

French tennis player Tatiana Golovin has scored her first victory against a top-10 player this year by knocking defending champion Venus Williams of the United States out of the Family Circle Cup tournament in South Carolina.

Golovin, the 13th seed, beat the fourth-seeded Williams in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals. In the next round, Golovin takes on seventh-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia, a straight-set winner over Jelena Kostanic of Croatia (6-3, 6-3).

Eighth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland advanced with a straight-set win over Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic (6-4, 6-0). Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia made the final eight with a three-set win over 11th-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan (6-1, 4-6, 6-1).

Former French Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium scored a straight-set win over Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic (6-2, 6-3). Another Czech player, Nicole Vaidisova, defeated 14th-seeded Shinobu Asagoe of Japan (3-6, 6-4, 7-6).

The clay-court tournament is one of several events players are using to prepare for the second major tournament of the year, the French Open, which gets under way May 23 in Paris.

Some information for this story provided by AP.