Reuters
Cincinnati, August 20: Serena Williams put herself back on the winning track in the American’s final warm-up event before the US Open with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in her opening match at the Cincinnati Masters here Wednesday.
The defending champion enjoyed a successful return to Cincinnati but Carolina Wozniacki continued her poor build-up for New York with a straight sets loss to Victoria Azarenka.
The World No. 1, who will aim for a rare sweep of the four Grand Slams at the August 31-September 13 US Open, broke Pironkova’s serve once in each set and then sealed victory in style with her 15th ace of the second round match.
The American will meet Karin Knapp in the third round after the Italian advanced with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Russia’s Daria Gavrilova.
In the evening session, Azarenka continued her dominance of Wozniacki when she eased past the fifth seed 6-0, 6-4. Fourth seed Petra Kvitova also bowed out, the Czech beaten 5-7, 6-4, 2-6 by Caroline Garcia.
Garcia will meet 14th seed Elina Svitolina in the next round after the Ukrainian edged out the slumping Eugenie Bouchard 7-6 (7-6), 7-5.
Sania-Hingis advances
Cincinnati: The Indo-Swiss tennis combine of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis started their Cincinnati Masters campaign with a straight sets win to enter the women’s doubles quarterfinals here. In the second round Wednesday, the top seeds beat unseeded German-Polish pair of Julia Goerges and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.