Venus opens Montreal campaign with blowout win
Print Edition
VENUS Williams opened play in the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Barbora Strycova.
Playing her last event before the Rio Olympics, the 36-year-old finished off the overmatched Czech in 58 minutes. Williams was coming a loss to Britain’s Johanna Konta last Sunday in the final of the Bank of the West Classic in California.
“It was definitely more straightforward than some of our other matches,” Williams said. “I’m never happy with my matches. Even an easy scoreline is never enough. But it’s about figuring out how to win instead of playing perfect.”
The seven-time grand slam champion, seeded sixth, will face Madison Keys in the third round. Keys beat fellow American Madison Brengle 6-4, 6-3.
Konta also advanced, topping Vania King of the US 7-5, 6-1.
At night, second-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany outlasted Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland topped Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-1, 7-5; seventh-seeded Roberta Vinci edged fellow Italian Camila Giorgi 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; and Slovakia’s Kristina Kucova beat eighth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Hometown favorite Eugenie Bouchard beat a higher-ranked opponent for the second straight day, toppling 11th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-0. On Tuesday, Bouchard beat Czech Lucie Safarova.
In Toronto, Novak Djokovic was given a scare in his North American hardcourt season opener but managed to prevail with a 7-5, 7-6 (3) victory over Luxembourg’s Gilles Mueller on Wednesday to reach the third round of the Rogers Cup.
Djokovic, playing his first match since his shock third-round Wimbledon loss to American Sam Querrey, fell behind 1-3 in the tie-break before switching gears and winning the next six points to seal the win in one hour, 43 minutes.
The Serbian world No. 1, a three-time winner of the Canadian Masters event, will next play Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek, a 7-6 (5), 6-4 winner over Canadian wildcard Peter Polansky.
Japanese third seed Kei Nishikori beat US qualifier Dennis Novikov 6-4, 7-5, ninth seed John Isner fell 6-7 (3), 7-6(4), 4-6 to fellow American Ryan Harrison and Canadian fourth seed Milos Raonic beat Chinese Taipei’s Lu Yen-hsun 6-3 6-3.
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