Tokyo, 17 August, /AJMEDIA/
Venus Williams and Naomi Osaka both exited the ATP/WTA Cincinnati Masters on Tuesday with straight-set, opening-round losses.
Williams, 42, who won her last match at the Midwestern pre-U.S. Open event in 2019, lost to 2016 champion Karolina Pliskova 7-5, 6-1.
Osaka’s summer form slump deepened meanwhile as the four-time Grand Slam winner was defeated 6-4, 7-5 by China’s Zhang Shuai.
Pliskova, one of the game’s biggest servers, struck eight aces and broke four times in a win over Williams lasting for nearly one and three-quarter hours.
Williams, semifinalist from a decade ago, has gone winless in her last five matches, last earning a victory in the Wimbledon first round.
Pliskova said she had to lift her level to run away with the second set.
“Venus is a great champion, she’s a fighter with a big game and big serve,” the Czech said. “She played well at certain points in the first set, I’m feeling physically strong so I was able to up my game in the second set.”
Osaka’s first-round defeat was the second in as many weeks for Japan’s former world number one, now ranked 39th.
The 24-year-old was eliminated in the Toronto first round and has won just a single match out of four on cement — at the WTA Silicon Valley in July.
World number 44 Zhang moved into the second round in 75 minutes as she won her first main draw match here since 2014.
The Chinese player was on the winning Cincinnati doubles team in 2021 and claimed US Open doubles honors in 2021 with Australian Sam Stosur.
The 33-year-old Zhang was broken while serving for the match as Osaka pulled to five-all; a subsequent break of the crowd favorite and a hold to love by Zhang concluded the victory.
“It was a really good win for me,” Zhang said. “At the start I was not feeling my serve but at the baseline I played very well. I tried to focus on myself today.
“It’s always tough to pay a really good friend. Naomi is amazing but she didn’t have the best day today.”
The win brings Zhang level at 3-3 in her series with Osaka.
In men’s action, Nick Kyrgios beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-5, 6-4. The Australian marched through with 29 winners – including 10 aces – and three breaks of the Spaniard’s serve to reach the second round.
The 28th-ranked Kyrgios has won all 11 of his first-round matches this season and won his 22nd match since returning to the ATP in June after skipping the clay season.
He now faces good friend Taylor Fritz after the American crushed Sebastian Baez 6-1, 6-1.
“Physically, I didn’t feel the best, but you have to keep pushing, keep trying,” Kyrgios said.
“Alejandro’s a hell of a player, he’s got a lot of shots at his disposal. I had to serve well and dictate,” the Montreal quarterfinalist aded.
“It was tricky conditions out there, the courts are a lot more lively than Montreal, it was harder to control the ball.”
Kyrgios took 50 minutes to secure the first set, wrapping it up after a break in the penultimate game with back-to-back serve winners.
He went up an early break to start the second set but lost it three games later as the dissatisfied Australian kept up a frustrated gripe session with his three-strong support box as Davidovich Fokina made it 2-2.
Kyrgios struck straight back with a love break to regain control 3-2 and ran out the winner in 91 minutes on his second match point.
