Venus stuns top seed Azarenka in Tokyo
Venus Williams upset top-seeded Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday to advance to the third round of the Pan Pacific Open.
Williams, making her first appearance in the Tokyo tournament since 2009, took advantage of six-double faults by Azarenka, who struggled with her game from the outset at Ariake Colosseu-m.
Williams next faces No. 13-seeded Simona Halep of Romania, who defeated Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 7-6 (4), 6-3.
In other second-round matches, second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland defeated Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak 7-6 (5), 6-0. Fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark overpowered Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-3.
Svetlana Kuznetsova also advanced by beating third-seeded Sara Errani of Italy 6-4, 6-4.
Kuznetsova, a two-time major winner, hit seven aces in the match. The Russian and will next face 15th-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania. Cirstea beat Japanese wild-card entry Misaki Doi 6-1, 6-2.
Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard defeated ninth-seeded Sloane Stephens of the United States 5-7, 7-6 (7), 6-3. Bouchard will next play Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, who beat Japan’s Ayumi Morita 6-4, 6-1.
Other winners include Samantha Stosur, Ana Ivanovic, Dominika Cibulkova and Madison Keys.
Som exits, Hesh falls in doubles
Meanwhile, India’s Somdev Devvarman crashed out in the first round at the Malaysia Open after qualifying for the main draw. Somdev fell 3-6, 3-6 to fellow qualifier Matteo Viola in straight sets, going down to his lower-ranked Italian rival after one hour and 15 minutes. While Somdev is ranked 98, Viola is 140 on the ATP ranking charts. It was first meeting between the two players.
Viola will now meet World no.4 David Ferrer in the second round.
Elsewhere at the Thailand Open, the top seeded pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Robert Lindstedt made a shock first round exit. The Indo-Sweden pair of Bhupathi and Lindstedt lost 6-2, 3-6, 8-10 to Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain and Paolo Lorenzi of Italy in just 59 minutes.
It was Bhupathi’s first tournament after the US Open, where he was knocked out in the first round along with partner Philipp Petzschner.
The Indian challenge is still alive in the tournament as Leander Paes is also playing in the doubles event. Paes and his Italian partner Daniele Bracciali have been seeded second and will open their campaign against James Cerretani and Adil Shamasdin.
Meanwhile, Bernard Tomic of Australia advanced to the second round when Ivo Karlovic of Croatia retired with a back injury while trailing 6-7 (3), 6-4, 4-2 on Tuesday.
Tomic will next face Gilles Simon of France. Other winners include Lukas Lacko of Slovakia, Go Soeda of Japan and Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain,
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