French Open 2018: Venus Williams And Jelena Ostapenko Lose In First Round

-


Defending champion Jelena Ostapenko and seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams went out of the French Open in the first round on Sunday.

Latvian fifth seed Ostapenko was stunned by Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova, who came through 7-5 6-3.

American ninth seed Williams, a finalist at Roland Garros in 2002, was beaten 6-4 7-5 by world number 91 Wang Qiang of China.

Meanwhile, fourth seed Elina Svitolina beat Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5 6-3.

It is the first time in 78 Grand Slam appearances stretching back to 1997 that Williams has lost successive first-round matches at a major.

"Nobody plans on this," said the 37-year-old, who also went out in the first round at the Australian Open in January. "There are no perfect days in tennis."

Last year, at the age of 19, the then unseeded Ostapenko pulled off a massive coup by beating current world number one Simona Halep to take the title in Paris.

But this time around, she was beaten in 95 minutes on Philippe Chatrier by world number 66 Kozlova, who had never triumphed over a top-30 player and needed a medical timeout to treat blisters.

"I really didn't expect anything from the match," Kozlova said. "Basically, I have hardly played for two and a half months but I wanted to show what I can do."

Ostapenko becomes only the second women's defending champion to lose in the first round of the French Open in the Open era after Anastasia Myskina in 2005.

Britain's Johanna Konta was also a first-round casualty, going down in straight sets against world number 93 Yulia Putintseva, who won 6-4 6-3 in an hour and 24 minutes.

World number 10 Sloane Stephens, who won the US Open last year, breezed into the second round by beating Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 6-2 6-0.

BBC

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Imiegba And Children Of Pa Akubo Esuka Celebrate His Enthronement As Ódegbé

-
Image
  By Suleiman Ugbokhe Pa Akubo Yakubu Esuka, the Ódegbé of Imiegba Imiegba Community, Three Ivie Clan in Etsako East local government area was in a celebration mode on Sunday, December 27, 2020, when the indigenes both home and abroad joined the children of Pa Akubo Yakubu Esuka to celebrate his enthronement as the Ódegbé of Imiegba. Pa. Akubo Yakubu Esuka was born to the family of Mr. Esuka and Madam Ogenikho about 104 years ago in Imiegba. In his quest for a better life, he left his birth place, Imiegba, in 1944, with his maternal uncle, Pa Etsekhumhe Ogweli for Minna where he did manial jobs for some time before he left for Kaduna with a single mission: To join the army. But it turned out to be mission impossible as Pa Akubo was not accepted into the army "for reasons I don't know," he says. "I then proceeded to Kano from Kaduna with the hope of securing a job. I was still not able to get a job." As the saying goes, 'no place like home,' Pa Akubo had
Read more

Hon. Benedicta Ebuehi Felicitates With Gov Obaseki On Fifth Anniversary

-
Image
  By Suleiman Ugbokhe His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki, Executive Governor, Edo State The immediate past Executive Chairman of Etsako East local government area, Hon. (Princess) Benedicta Ebuehi has congratulated His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki on the occasion of his fifth anniversary as the Executive Governor of Edo state. In a statement personally signed by her and made available to newsmen, Hon. Ebuehi stated that ”It is heartwarming that your coming into office as Executive Governor of Edo state five years ago has transformed the state into a viable tier of government whose policies and programmes have continued to attract admiration and consultancy from your counterparts in other states of the federation." The erstwhile council boss noted that even in the choice of personnel to help drive the policies and programmes of the administration of the 'Heartbeat of the Nation,' Governor Godwin Obaseki has been meticulous, which has resulted in a peaceful, harmonious and seam
Read more

One Year After ... Hon. Princess Benedicta Ebuehi Remains The Toast Of Etsako East People

-
Image
By Suleiman Ugbokhe Hon. Princess Benedicta Ebuehi, Former Executive Chairman, Etsako East Local Government Area It is one year now since Hon. Princess Benedicta Ebuehi left office as the Executive Chairman of Etsako East local government area, a position she stepped into when the then helmsman, Aremiyau Momoh (Mbakwe), under whom she was the vice chairman, was removed from office by the state government two years into the three-year tenure. On assuming office as Executive Chairman, Princess Benedicta left no one in doubt that she was coming into office to serve the people of Etsako East local government area, and not to canonise, imperialise herself as was the case before her. One of the first things she did to demonstrate her people-oriented policy was the purchase and installation of a transformer at Awuyemi (Ward 5), to end years of darkness in that part of Okpella. It is very easy to gloss over this achievement but when the socioeconomic ripple effects of restoring power supply t
Read more