Venus staves off Diyas test to set up Ivanovic clash
Cincinnati, August 18
Venus Williams held off young challenger Zarina Diyas 7-6(6) 6-4 on Monday to reach the second round of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, where she will meet Ana Ivanovic.
Diyas, a rising 21-year-old from Kazakhstan, fell behind in both sets but refused to back down. Veteran Williams managed to win the opening set tie-breaker 8-6 and hit 32 winners in the match, sending a brief reminder of her old form.
Venus will now face ninth-ranked Ivanovic in the second round. The tournament’s opening day featured a couple of upsets as ninth seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain went down to Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4 7-6. Timea Bacsinszky, the 12th seed, also fell to Madison Keys 6-4 6-3. Germany’s Andrea Petkovic and former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic both advanced.
Monfils defeat marred by ‘tanking’ accusations
Gael Monfils was accused of “tanking” during his first-round defeat when the 14th-seeded Frenchman lost to Poland’s Jerry Janowicz 6-4 7-5 in 75 minutes.
Monfils served so quickly in the second set that ball boys barely had time to get into position after each point before play resumed.
At one stage, television commentators joked that they thought Monfils was in such a hurry because he had a tee time booked to play golf.
During one rally, he turned his back on his opponent briefly, prompting disbelief in the commentary box. “To not give 100 percent and be so blatant about it, I think it’s disrespectful,” two-time US Open champion Tracy Austin said on the Tennis Channel. — Reuters
