While Stanford champ Serena Williams shifts her focus to the London Olympics, runner-up Coco Vandeweghe is poised to continue her breakthrough season at this week’s WTA Carlsbad event.
Williams, who earlier this month won her fifth Wimbledon crown, beat the 20-year-old Vandeweghe 7-5, 6-3 on Sunday for her second straight WTA Tour title at the Stanford tournament.
The world No. 4 is not in competition this week after winning Stanford and will soon head to Britain for the Summer Games, which open a week from Friday.
“[A gold medal] would mean a lot to me, but I can’t put all my hopes and dreams on just that,” said the 30-year-old Williams, who has twice lifted Olympic doubles gold with her elder sister Venus.
“But it would mean a lot and I’d like to try to get one,” the winner of 28 of her last 29 matches and holder of four titles this year said.
Vandeweghe, who rebounded from a lucky loser start at Stanford to make the first title bid of her career, opens this week in the first round at the La Costa resort in Carlsbad against South African sixth seed Chanelle Scheepers.
The blond right-handed Californian rose from a ranking of 120th to 69th as a result of her hardcourt run. She credits a serve improved under the tutelage of former ATP player Jan-Michael Gambill with lifting her game.
“It has been coming in clutch,” she said of her new, improved delivery. “I’ve worked hard on my serve, it’s a big weapon for me. I’ve been making a lot of first serves and I can put pressure on an opponent by serving consistently well. I’m hitting my spots and doing very well.”
The Carlsbad field is headed by France’s Marion Bartoli, with Slovak Dominika Cibulkova the second seed and former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic seeded third.
Russian Nadia Petrova is seeded fourth. US Olympian Christina McHale is also in Carlsbad, tuning up for London by playing one final event.
In opening-day results on Monday, Poland’s Urszula Radwanska knocked out sixth seed Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 7-5 The 29-year-old Hantuchova has struggled since returning from a foot injury which forced her to miss Stuttgart, Madrid, Rome, Brussels and Roland Garros.
She is playing the event for the ninth time, reaching the semis in 2010 and losing to Radwanska’s world No. 2 sister Agnieszka.
Alexa Glatch won an all-American clash over Lauren Davis 6-3, 6-2, with Glatch hammering 10 aces in a match that lasted only 75 minutes.
“It’s tough to play another American girl, she’s a good player, an up-and-comer,” said the 22-year-old Glatch, who next faces Petrova. “I’m just happy to get the win and move on to the next round.”
Japan’s Misaki Doi profited from a meltdown by Michelle Larcher de Brito. The Portuguese player smashed a racquet after losing 6-7 (6/8), 6-1, 6-3.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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