V.Williams upset in first round of Wuhan Open
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E-mail Xinhua, September 21, 2014
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Venus Williams returns a shot in the game. |
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams crashed out of the 2.4-million-dollar Wuhan Open WTA tournament in the first round Sunday in a nail-biting three-set defeat to French player Caroline Garcia.
Garcia took the first set 6-4, only to suffer a 6-4 reverse in the second before clinching victory in more than two-and-a-half hours, in a tiebreak which finished 8-6.
She will now face Polish fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round.
Williams, 34, arrived in Wuhan after losing the Quebec City tournament final to Croatia's Mirjana Lucic-Baroni last Sunday.
In other matchups, home favorite Xu Shilin, the Nanjing Youth Olympics champion, was forced to retire from her match with American Alison Riske in the third set's tirbreaker when the American took five consecutive points to lead 5-0.
The 16-year-old wildcard was carried off with heatstroke after playing more than 2 hours 45 minutes in high temperatures in the central Chinese city.
The 13th seeded Ekaterina Makarova of Russia beat Bojana Jovanovski from Serbia 6-2, 6-2. Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova lost to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic after two tiebreakers. The Czech reached the second round in a hard-fought 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) victory.
Twice Australia Open champion Victoria Azarenka pulled out of the tournament due to right foot injury that lingered season long.
The Belarussian also announced her absence for the remainder of the season Sunday on her Facebook account.
Top eight seeded players all have first round bye in the tournament.
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