Hobart:  Serena Williams is two for two in her comeback after a four month injury layoff, beating Lucie Safarova 6 3,3 6,7 6 (5) Tuesday at the Hobart International.

Playing just 18 hours after her first round, straight sets win over Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden on Monday night, Williams took advantage of Safarova''''s poor serving. The Czech player double faulted on her first serve in the  third set tiebreaker, then again to set up match point.

Williams, recovering from ankle and knee injuries, has not played a tournament since the U. S. Open in early September.

She fell behind 4 1 in the second set before holding a break point to level at 4 4,but Safarova held on to take the set.

Williams had her service broken in the opening game of the deciding set before pulling back even at 3 3 on the way to the deciding tiebreaker. In other second round play Tuesday, two seeded players.

lost in the 32 women tournament that is being used as a warmup for the Australian Open that begins next Monday in Melbourne.

Sybille Bammer of Austria, who will play Williams in the quarterfinals, beat second seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6 4,6 3 and Catalina Castano of Colombia defeated  fifth seeded Mara Santangelo of Italy 6 3,6 2.

Seventh seeded Zheng Jie of China beat Severine Bremond of France 6 1,6 3.

In a first round match, Olga Poutchkova of Russia defeated Tzipora Obziler of Israel 0 6,6 2,7 6 (5). Poutchkova played top seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia later Tuesday.