Venus Williams Loses Istanbul Opener
By Burton Vanderfliet, Lawn Tennis Analyst, Posted: Saturday, July 25, 2015 9:05pm PST USA
| ISTANBUL--Tuesday in round one at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Cup in Istanbul, Turkey, the top seeded Venus Williams of the USA saw her US Open preparations hit a bump in the road as she was upset by the qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine 6-4, 7-6(7-4).
Although Williams, ranked 15th, entered the match versus Bondarenko with a 2-1 head to head lead, the Ukrainian had topped the American 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the duo’s previous encounter in 2009 also on hard courts.
In her first hard court match of the summer, Williams opened the match playing below her best tennis and quickly fell behind 4-6, 2-5.
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Venus Williams of the USA |
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Serving for the set, Venus Williams fell behind double break point before
double-faulting to drop serve and enter a tiebreaker.
The American then steadied her game to win four games in a row and take a 6-5 set two lead.
Serving for the set; however, Williams fell behind double break point before double-faulting to drop serve and enter a tiebreaker.
More errors from Williams combined with several aggressive points from the 119th ranked Bondarenko resulted in a straight sets loss for the American after one hour and 38 minutes of play.
The night match had started late and finished around 11:20pm local time.
Venus Williams, a US Open champion in 2000 and 2001, competes at the US Open beginning August 31st at New York City.
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