MADRID, (Reuters) – World number one Serena Williams  was battered into a 4-6 6-2 6-3 submission by a fired-up Nadia  Petrova in the third round of the Madrid Open yesterday.

American Williams, who won her 12th grand slam singles title  at the Australian Open in January before injury sidelined her  for three months, looked increasingly distraught as the match  wore on in the face of some relentlessly accurate hitting from  the 16th seed.

Williams appeared to have given up the ghost well before she  sent a forehand over the baseline on the Russian’s first match  point.

Serena’s defeat put a slight dampener on the Williams family  celebrations as sister Venus had earlier made sure she would  climb back to number two in the world rankings following her 3-6  6-1 6-2 win over Francesca Schiavone.

When the new list is released on Monday, it will be the  first time since May 2003 the competitive siblings, who are  coached by their father Richard and have won 19 singles grand  slam titles between them, have been ranked first and second.

“We definitely can celebrate,” Serena said at a news  conference.

“I think it’s a great feat to be back at world number one  and two. That’s so amazing and I feel really good. It’s a moment  that we can definitely hold no matter what.”

TENSE BATTLE

Venus has made no secret of her desire to snatch the  top spot back and laughingly said: “I congratulate her on that  ranking but I am aiming to get there myself!”

“Serena and I being number one and two in the world is what  we dreamed of growing up, but we’ve each dreamed of being number  one. Neither of us dreamed of being number two.”

Seventh seed Jelena Jankovic edged a tense all-Serbian  second-round battle when she beat Ana Ivanovic 4-6 6-4 6-1.

Both players looked well below par in a match littered with  errors on the clay of Manolo Santana centre court.

They struggled to hold serve throughout, with Jankovic,  wearing a bright green dress, breaking her orange-clad  compatriot 11 times and losing her own serve on eight occasions.

Jankovic, the world number four and runner-up in Rome last  week, will play Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues for a place in  the quarter-finals.

“Overall, I am not really happy with the way that I played  but a win is a win,” she said.

“I had quite a lot of trouble in the first set and I didn’t  serve well and I wasn’t really feeling the shots,” the  25-year-old former number one added.

“I was quite a long way from where I was playing the past  few weeks but then I just tried to stay as positive as  possible.”

BIG DIFFERENCE

French Open champion in 2008, Ivanovic has won just one Tier  II tournament since that breakthrough grand slam triumph and has  slipped down the rankings but a run to the Rome semi-finals  lifted her to 42nd.

“I don’t think either of us played so well today,” the  22-year-old said.

“It’s always hard to play someone from your own country but  it was also a bit hard to find a rhythm.