Li cruises, Venus out at Wimbledon
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 26, 2012
China's Li Na cruised through to the second round of Wimbledon Open after convincingly beating Kazakhstan's Ksenia Pervak in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.
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Li Na makes light work of Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan. |
After a frustrating claycourt campaign at the French Open, Li looked right at home on the lush lawns of the All England Club.
She was far too strong for Pervak and brushed aside the 21-year-old in little more than an hour to set up a second round meeting with Romania's Sorana Cirstea.
Li, 11th seed of the tournament, stumbled briefly in the first set when she dropped her serve in the third game but recovered to make the decisive break to take a 5-3 lead before going on to serve out the set.
The 30-year-old then quickly took control of the second set with a break to move 2-1 ahead and romped to victory with two more breaks.
Venus crashes out
The former world No.1 went down to Russian Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-3, a mere shadow of the gracefully athletic player who powered her way to five ladies' singles titles at Wimbledon.
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Venus Williams crashes out in the first round. |
However, Williams maintained she is planning to return to the All England Club next year. She is entered in this year's women's doubles with sister Serena and also wants to compete for the US at the London Olympics.
"I feel like I am a great player," she said. "I am a great player. Unfortunately, I had to deal with circumstances that people don't normally have to deal with in this sport.
There's no way I'm just going to sit down and give up just because I have a hard time the first five or six freakin' tournaments back. You know, that's just not me."
Later Monday, defending champion Novak Djokovic began his title defense with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1win over Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero.
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