Venus Williams had not played much winning tennis since capturing her 49th WTA title in February. She was more than ready to show off her game at the Volvo Car Open on Wednesday.
The third-seeded Williams used her powerhouse serves and crisp groundstrokes for a 6-4, 6-2 victory over fellow American Alison Riske. Williams advanced on a day when several other top seeds were upset at the year’s first clay-court event.
Williams did not care what surface she was on, the 35-year-old simply wanted to wipe away bad memories of first-match losses at Indian Wells and Miami since winning a WTA event in Taiwan two months ago.
“I just came into the tournament eager, just ready to go, especially after waiting two weeks,” she said. “So it’s four weeks and only two matches and you’re like: ‘Argh!’ So I usually don’t have that problem.”
Williams will not have such troubles in Charleston, although several high seeds already did: No. 2 Belinda Bencic, No. 4 Lucie Safarova, No. 6 Andrea Petkovic and No. 8 Madison Keys all lost their first-round matches.
Bencic of Switzerland, ranked 10th in the world, was beaten by Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-1. Safarova, a former finalist at the event, fell to US wild-card entrant Louisa Chirico, 6-3, 6-3. Germany’s Petkovic, the 2014 champion, lost to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 7-5, 6-2. Keys fell to Germany’s Laura Siegemund, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-4. Past champion Sabine Lisicki of Germany, seeded 15th, was also ousted.
Other seeded winners along with Williams were No. 5 Sara Errani of Italy, No. 7 Sloane Stephens of the US and 10th seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia.
Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, got off to a strong start at the clay-court event. She had consecutive serves of 195kph and 192kph to close out one game in the first set as fans in the stadium court marveled as the ball zoomed past Riske.
Williams kept up the attack throughout, winning the final four games to advance. She won the final two games without dropping a point. Riske walked to the sideline after an ace that put Williams ahead 5-2, then the 25-year-old from Pittsburgh double-faulted to end the match.
“I think today, I was aggressive, which is important for my game, even on clay,” Williams said. “You still want to dictate the points.”
Williams moved easily in her first match on clay this season and quickly erased any mistakes with her stellar play. The 2004 winner — when the event was called the Family Circle Cup — had her serve broken by Riske to fall behind 4-3. Williams immediately broke back then closed out the set with two more wins.
Riske broke Williams’ serve to start the second set before the world’s 14th-ranked player took control.
Venus and younger sister, Serena, have combined to win four Volvo titles in the previous 11 years. Venus has never lost her opening match in Charleston in eight career appearances.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but