WTA Chicago Women's Open: Hsieh ousts Venus in opening round
41-year-old Venus Williams was beaten in straight sets by Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei. Hsieh sealed the tie 6-2, 6-3 as Venus spent just 67 minutes on the court. It was a one-sided opening round match at the Washington Park tennis facility on Chicago's South Side. 2021 seems to be going on a poor note for Venus, who has a win-loss record of 3-9.
Venus' poor run of form has seen her ranking drop to 147 in the world. Venus, who had withdrawn from the Cincinnati Masters, had previously appeared at Wimbledon. She lost in the second round at Wimbledon against Ons Jabeur. Prior to that, she faced a first-round exit at Roland Garros against Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Meanwhile, the 81st-ranked Hsieh improved to 11-12 on the season. She won 71 percent of her first serve points and had just one double fault. On the other hand, Williams double-faulted five times. Williams, who has 49 career WTA titles, saw her service get broken four times and won just 35 percent of her second serve points. Hsieh converted four breakpoints.
Tokyo 2020 Olympics bronze medalist Elina Svitolina reached the second round after seeing Clara Burel retire from the match with an injury. Svitolina was 2-0 ahead in the third set after going down in the opener (5-7) and taking the second set (6-1). Meanwhile, Kristina Mladenovic overcame Zarina Diyas 6-2, 7-6 (7/3), and Czech Tereza Martincova stunned third seed Sorana Cirstea 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Fiona Ferro (FRA) bt Aldila Sutjiadi (INA) 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 Rebecca Peterson (SWE) bt Marie Bouzková (CZE) 7-6 (11/9), 7-6 (8/6) Viktorija Golubic (SUI x6) bt María Camila Osorio (COL) 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 Ana Bogdan (ROM) bt Heather Watson (GBR) 6-2, 1-0 Marketa Vondrousova (CZE x5) bt Quinn Gleason (USA) 6-2, 6-0 Alize Cornet (FRA x9) bt Ann Li (USA) 6-7 (8/10), 6-0, 6-4
