Kerber beats Venus in Madrid; Serena wins

MADRID (AP)—Serena Williams beat Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-1 to reach the Madrid
Open’s second round, while sister Venus lost 6-4, 6-1 to Angelique
Kerber on Monday.

The ninth-seeded Williams had 13 aces and 40
winners against Vesnina, who was struggling with her game on the
slippery blue clay court. The Russian lost her balance in the sixth game
and set up a break point for Williams, who pulled ahead to lead 4-2.

Williams’
ninth ace of the match provided a set point for the ninth-ranked
American to take the first set and wrap up the match against the
68th-ranked Russian in just over an hour.

“I’m feeling good but I
wasn’t thrilled,” said Williams, who will face Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. “This is my first tournament in Europe so
hopefully I will just keep my good form and just keep going,” she
added.

Venus Williams’ third tournament since being sidelined by
illness is over after being broken six times by the 12th-seeded German.
The seven-time major champion reached the quarterfinals at Miami and
Charleston, S.C., earlier this season.

Fifth-seeded Samantha
Stosur rallied to beat Christina McHale 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 to reach the third
round, as did French Open champion Li Na after winning 6-3, 6-1 against
Silvia Soler-Espinosa.

Petra Cetkovska also advanced, beating Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6-4, 7-5.

Defending champion Petra Kvitova beat Marina Erakovic 6-2, 6-3 in her first-round match.

Kvitova
needed over an hour to beat Erakovic, with the Czech player saving all
three break points against her while converting four.

Also on
Monday, Andrea Hlavackova, Ekaterina Makarova, Lucie Hradecka, Lucie
Safarova and Sara Errani won their first-round matches.

Local favorite Carla Suarez Navarro rallied to beat 15th-seeded Jelena Jankovic 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 to reach the second round.

In the men’s tournament, Spain’s Nicolas Almagro rallied to beat Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3.

Almagro
saved four set points before hitting long to lose the first set in a
tiebreaker. The thirteen-ranked Spanish player broke his opponent in the
opening game of the second after adjusting his game to the new court
surface to win the match in three sets.

“The court isn’t very
good, it’s very slippery,” Almagro said of the unorthodox blue clay
court that has been criticized by players after it was introduced for
the first time in this year’s tournament.

Other winners Monday
included Serbia’s Victor Troicki, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and American
Ryan Harrison who beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5).

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain ousted 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Top-ranked
Novak Djokovic begins his title defense Tuesday against Daniel
Gimeno-Traver, who beat Victor Hanescu 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3.