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An oldie milestone for Venus; Sania out
With superstar sister Serena away pregnant, it was left to 36-year-old Venus to carry the standard for the Williams family at Roland Garros on Wednesday, with a second-round thumping of Japan\'s Kurumi Nara.Seeded 10th here, Williams ground her Japanese opponent into the red Parisian dust in a contest that at times almost veered into miss-match territory before ending 6-3 6-1.
Paris: With superstar sister Serena away pregnant, it was left to 36-year-old Venus to carry the standard for the Williams family at Roland Garros on Wednesday, with a second-round thumping of Japan's Kurumi Nara.Seeded 10th here, Williams ground her Japanese opponent into the red Parisian dust in a contest that at times almost veered into miss-match territory before ending 6-3 6-1.
Williams never appeared extended on the Philippe Chatrier court, but she nevertheless delivered a display of exquisite shot-making to a crowd denied a real contest.Punching her black and lime-green racquet through the ball, Williams cleaned the lines with her ground-strokes, sending Nara scampering all round the arena.
"You know, it's always a joy when you can control the match," she smiled afterwards."That always feels good."The win makes her the oldest woman to reach the third round at the French Open since Billie-Jean King in 1982."I don't think I have played either in singles, so it will be interesting to, like, see how that ball is coming at me," she mused."I just want to win, so whoever I play, I just would like to win that match. That's how you have to be is greedy."
It is Venus's 20th attempt at winning this title, and time may be running out for her, and for tennis fans to enjoy her languid shot-play.She came closest in 2002 when she was beaten in the final by her younger sister, as she was at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that year.There is no Serena standing in her way here, but plenty of younger guns are eager for a notable victory.
Bopanna thru India’s Rohan Bopanna crossed the first-round hurdle in men's doubles but his compatriot Sania Mirza bowed out in the opening round of the women's doubles event in the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris on Wednesday.
Bopanna along with his Uruguayan partner Pablo Cuevas hardly broke a sweat as they outplayed the French duo of Mathias Bourgue and Paul-Henri Mathieu in a one-sided contest.
The ninth seeded Indo-Uruguayan pair posted a comfortable 6-1, 6-1 victory over French combination in just 53 minutes.
They will next take on Treat Huey and Denis Istomin.However, in the women’s doubles, fourth seeded pair of Sania and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan were stunned by unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Australia's Daria Gavrilova in a hard-fought match.Sania and Shvedova went down 6-7, (5-7), 6-1, 2-6 to Pavlyuchenkova and Gavrilova in a gruelling battle that lasted 2 hours and 23 minutes.
