Wimbledon champion Venus Williams won her opening match at the Japan Open tennis tournament here on Tuesday. The 27-year-old American top seed, heavily favoured to win the 175,000-dollar Tier III tournament, eased aside her compatriot and 2002 champion Jill Craybas 6-3, 6-1 in 58 minutes.
Williams said she initially planned to take the week off, but decided to take part in the Tokyo tournament to help prepare for the season-ending elite championships in Madrid in November. "This tournament will certainly help, and that was definitely the reason that I decided to play," said Williams, looking forward to winning her fourth title of the season.
"I think at the moment I'm number eight, and the person behind me will definitely have to play well to get past me. It was great winning last week (in the Korea Open). "And obviously winning another tournament makes the gap bigger. I just hope to keep playing," she added.
In the second round, Williams will take on fellow American Vania King, who defeated Edina Gallovits of Romania 6-2, 5-7, 7-5. Fourth seed and two-time champion Ai Sugiyama of Japan and third-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia both fell victim to unseeded players.
Sugiyama bowed to Chinese qualifier Yuan Meng 6-3, 6-3, while Kirilenko, last week's runner-up to Williams, was beaten by Camille Pin of France 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. "I'm all right in practice, but I'm always tense in a match. I don't know why. Today was the same. I did nothing well. It's disappointing to finish a tournament like this on my home ground," said Sugiyama.
Comments
Comments are closed.