The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Venus cruises into second round

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Wednesday, Sep 26, 2007
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Venus cruises into second round

SEOUL: Top seeded Venus Williams strolled into the second round of the Korea Open on Tuesday, defeating American qualifier Abigail Spears 6-2, 6-3.

Despite warm conditions at Seoul’s Olympic Park tennis arena, Williams barely broke a sweat as she used her powerful serve to dominate the match. Spears, with her right arm heavily strapped, failed to win a single point from Williams’s first serve in the opening set.

The second set continued in a similar vein. World No. 9 Williams broke again in the opening game and held off a late rally from Spears to complete a comfortable win.

In other first round matches, defending champion No. 5 Eleni Daniilidou of Greece won a hard-fought match against Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-4, Martina Muller of Germany eased past local hope Han Sung-hee 6-1, 6-0, American Ahsha Rolle made short work of the Britain’s Anne Keothavong 6-1, 6-1 and Frenchwoman Mathilde Johansson defeated Junri Namigata of Japan 7-5, 6-2.

Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugaen rallied from a set down to eliminate Casey Dellacqua of Australia 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 and Meng Yuan of China defeated New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic 6-4, 6-4.

Williams, who won her sixth Grand Slam at Wimbledon this year, returned to the top 10 in the WTA world rankings for the first time since April 2006 after reaching the U.S. Open semifinals earlier this month.

The results (All first round):

At Seoul (Korea Open): Venus Williams bt Abigail Spears 6-2, 6-3; Agnes Szavay bt Lee Ye-Ra 6-2, 6-3; Eleni Daniilidou bt Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-4; Martina Müller bt Han Sung-Hee 6-1, 6-0; Tamarine Tanasugarn bt Casey Dellacqua 1-6, 6-3, 6-2; Catalina Castaño bt Hsieh Su-Wei 6-3, 6-2; Ahsha Rolle bt Anne Keothavong 6-1, 6-1; Yuan Meng bt Marina Erakovic 6-4, 6-4; Mathilde Johansson bt Junri Namigata 7-5, 6-2.

At Luxembourg (Fortis Championships): Sybille Bammer bt Tamira Paszek 6-0, 6-2; Victoria Azarenka bt Agnieszka Radwanska 4-6, 7-5, 6-1; Anne Kremer bt Michaella Krajicek 6-3, 7-6(3); Shahar Peer bt Lucie Safarova 6-3, 6-3.

At Bangkok (Thailand Open): Ivo Karlovic bt Feliciano Lopez 7-6(2), 6-3; Frank Dancevic bt Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4); Nicolas Mahut bt Zach Fleishman 7-5, 6-2; Michael Llodra bt Teimuraz Gabashvili 7-6(2), 7-5; Mischa Zverev bt Michael Russell 6-4, 3-6, 6-1; Dominik Meffert bt Amer Delic 7-5, 6-1. — Agencies

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