Cincinnati, Aug 17 (SocialNews.XYZ) England's Emma Raducanu collected a memorable win in the opening round of the Western & Southern Open, defeating Serena Williams 6-4, 6-0 in the pair's first ever meeting.
In what could end up being the second-last tournament of Williams' career, after confirming she will retire after the U.S. Open beginning later this month, the 40-year-old showed fight early on against the 19-year-old world number 11 on Tuesday, reports DPA.
After getting broken to love in the very first game of the match, Williams found her footing, and even secured a break of her own in the opening set, but a second for Raducanu saw her comfortably serve out the opening frame.
The second set was domination, as Williams was only able to win 35 per cent (seven-of-20) of her service points, and 20 per cent (three-of-15) while returning.
Venus Williams, 42, was also eliminated in her opening match, going down 7-5, 6-1 against Karolina Pliskova, with Pliskova now scheduled to take on Elise Mertens in the second round after a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina.
Earlier in the day, Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic was upset 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 by Belgium's Sorana Cirstea, and four-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka went down to China's Shuai Zhang 6-4, 7-5.
Russian qualifier Anna Kalinskaya collected a top-30 win against Martina Trevisan 7-6 (7-2), 7-5, earning a second-round matchup against world number seven Aryna Sabalenka.
In an all-American clash, the in-form Shelby Rogers was too good for Sofia Kenin, winning 6-2, 6-1 to relegate Kenin to her ninth consecutive loss.
World number two Anett Kontaveit came from a set down to defeat Tereza Martincova 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, while rising star Coco Gauff was forced to retire due to injury while trailing 5-7, 0-1 against Marie Bouzkova.
Simona Halep, ranked sixth in the world, had her hands full in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win against late entrant Anastasia Potapova, and the woman Halep beat in last week's Canadian Open final, Beatriz Haddad Maia, suffered an early exit at the hands of Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 6-4.
In the late matches, Madison Keys was too strong for Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva 7-5, 6-3, and France's Caroline Garcia continued her scintillating form with a big upset 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (6-8), 6-1 victory against world number three Maria Sakkari, giving her nine wins from her past 10 matches, including over world number one Iga Swiatek last month.
Source: IANS
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz
This website uses cookies.
