Venus Williams finally beat Andrea Petkovic on Monday.
Five months after a hip injury forced her to retire against Petkovic after one game of their third-round match at the Australian Open, Williams beat the German 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 in her first match back at Easbourne to complete a successful start to her Wimbledon preparations.
“It felt fitting, I guess,” Williams said of playing Petkovic again. “It was a great way to start it all off.”
Photo: AFP
The 30-year-old Williams was clearly rusty. She began the match with two double-faults and she made a series of unforced errors, particularly off the forehand side.
However, the five-time Wimbledon champion’s grass-court experience, and greater aggression, saw her through. She wasted three match points in the final game and saved a break-back point before finally taking it when Petkovic went wide with a forehand.
In other matches, third-seeded Victoria Azarenka beat Peng Shuai of China 6-4, 7-6 (2), while fifth-seeded Petra Kvitova recovered from a slow start to defeat Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia 5-7, 6-1, 6-3.
Williams said the blustery wind and damp air on England’s southeast coast contributed to an erratic display. The 30-year-old slipped over on the baseline in the 11th game of the second set, almost doing the splits.
After benefiting from Williams’ injury, Petkovic went on to reach the quarter-finals in Melbourne and has since risen to No. 11 in the rankings. The 23-year-old led 4-2 in the first set before losing it 7-5, but she fought back well to come from a break down to take the second.
One break in the third set was enough for Williams to seal the a place in the second round where she will play former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic or Julia Goerges of Germany.
Williams’ sister Serena was set to make her return to action after nearly a year out against Tsvetana Pironkova yesterday. She could then face top-seeded Vera Zvonareva.
The men’s tournament also -began on Monday. There were first-round wins for Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.
However, the second-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov went out, beaten 7-5, 6-2 by Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq.
UNICEF OPEN
AP, DEN BOSCH, NETHERLANDS
Top-seeded Kim Clijsters beat Monica Niculescu 7-5, 7-5 on Monday in the first round of the Unicef Open, a grass-court warmup for Wimbledon.
In the men’s tournament, top-seeded Nicolas Amalgro lost to Michael Berrer of Germany 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
After leading 4-2, Clijsters lost three straight games before winning three in a row to finish the set.
In the second, Clijsters broke Niculescu in the sixth game, but the Romanian broke right back and then both held serve until Niculescu double-faulted to end the match.
Second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia also -advanced, beating Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-4.
Marcos Baghdatis also reached the second round. The second-seeded Cypriot defeated Arnaud Clement of France 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Nicolas Mahut of France advanced by eliminating sixth-seeded Adrian Mannarino 6-7 (2), 3-6.
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