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Venus marches ahead at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships

The 33-year-old American broke her Russian opponent’s serve decisively in the sixth game of the first set to take it 6-3 under the floodlights on Centre Court. She then opened up a 3-0 lead early in the second set with two further service breaks before Vesnina got one of them back from 40-15 down in the fourth game. Williams immediately restored that three-game cushion nonetheless with her fourth and final break and she duly eased to a 6-3, 6-2 triumph. “She played so well at Wimbledon and I had some chances at Cincy (Cincinnati), but she was clearly more on her game,” reflected Venus on her two prior losses to Vesnina. “These days, I’m a little more on mine, so I was glad to get a win.”

Williams is joined in the second phase by Lucie Safarova and Carla Suarez Navarro, who beat Sloane Stephens (6-3, 7-5) and Nadia Petrova (6-3, 6-2) respectively in the afternoon session. Over on Court One, Ekaterina Makarova’s ‘reward’ for battling to a two-sets-to-one win against Alisa Kleybanova (6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4) is a match with the world number one Serena Williams, who is also the tournament’s first seed.

Meanwhile, Eugenie Bouchard’s quest to qualify for the main draw ended in dire disappointment as she lost out to Germany’s Annika Beck 6-1, 6-4 in the last of three qualifiers over on Court Three.

Flavia Pennetta had no such difficulties as he accounted for Yvonne Meusburger 6-1, 6-3, although she was the only Italian player to make it after Andrea Petkovic’s conqueror Camila Giorgi was beaten by Karolina Pliskova 7-5, 6-2. The Ukraine’s Maryna Zanevska completed the quartet to make the round of 32 proper with a 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 win over Germany’s Mona Barthel. All four are in action on Tuesday, where Zanevska will meet the fifth-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic before Beck encounters Samantha Stosur, Pennetta faces Kaia Kanepi and Pliskova tackles Kirsten Flipkens.

alex@khaleejtimes.com