After a long rain delay, Germany’s Sabine Lisicki made quick work of Venus Williams, strolling into the second round of the Rogers Cup on Monday after routing the American 6-0 6-3.
Rain wiped out most of the opening day action, but play finally resumed on the Toronto hard courts late in the evening following a nine-hour wait with Williams and Lisicki walking out onto a near-empty Center Court.
For those who waited out the storm, the reward was brief as Lisicki needed just 66 minutes to dismiss the 14th seed.
Photo: AFP
“It’s always tough after a long rain delay. You don’t know if you are ever going to get onto the court, and with a tough match against Venus,” Lisicki said. “It’s always a pleasure to play her because you know you have to play well to beat her, so I’m really happy with my performance today.”
Lisicki, who got her North American hard-court campaign off to a shaky start with a first-round loss last week at Stanford, came out looking sharper and ready to play, opening the match with a break.
Williams, trailing 3-0, had a chance to break back, but could not convert as Lisicki held to forge further ahead.
Williams’ resistance continued to crumble, with three straight double faults in the fifth game handing her opponent a third break, before Lisicki closed out the set 40-0.
Williams, playing just her second match since a fourth-round loss to sister Serena at Wimbledon, held serve to open the second set, but then double faulted to gift Lisicki a 2-1 lead.
Williams later saved two match points, but could not fight off a third as Lisicki improved her record to 4-1 against the American.
The match was only the second singles contest to be completed on a soggy opening day.
In the first match of the day on center court, Italian 15th seed Flavia Pennetta beat Canadian wild card Gabriela Dabrowski 6-4 6-1 to set up a second round encounter with world No. 1 Serena Williams.
A former doubles world No. 1, Pennetta needed just 69 minutes to dismiss the 222nd ranked Dabrowski and register her first match win since the French Open.
“It’s going to be nice because I’ll play one of the best players ever,” Pennetta said. “But it’s good because she’s the hardest test and I’ll see where my game is.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later