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Reuters
Serena Williams had another rough day on the unofficial Farewell Tour, taking on 10th seed Emma Raducanu (Great Britain) in the first round of the Western Open in Mason on Tuesday. We lost 6-4 6-0. Ohio.
Williams, 40, recently said he was nearing the end of his playing career as he plans to have his second child. This tournament in the Cincinnati area was her third tournament of the year for her. She lost in the first round at Wimbledon in late June and in the second round last week in Toronto.
Her Raducanu, 19, is also enduring a tough season. The reigning U.S. Open champion has lost in her second round in all three of her majors so far this year, and her two best results came in the quarterfinals in Stuttgart, Germany and Washington. It was a defeat.
Raducanu took her only 65 minutes to rout Williams and she committed only one unforced error in this match.
In the post-fight interview, Radukhanu said of Williams:
“I am so grateful that our careers intersected with the experience of being able to play her. It was a real honor.”
Raducanu's next match is against another former World No. 1 player, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
In other action on Tuesday, No. 11 seed Coco her Gauff suffered a left ankle injury in the first set, causing Czech Republic's Marie Buzkova to face her loss. I gave up in the first round. Buzkova was leading her 7-5, 1-0 when Gauff stopped the match.
Gauff, 18, fell on the court and injured his lower leg in the first set when he was leading 5-3. She lost her next three games before being examined by a trainer.
Bouzkova won the first match of the second set and Gauff withdrew.
It was a difficult development for Gauff, who has lost in the quarterfinals in the last two events. She also reached the final of the French Open in the spring before losing to world No. 1 Poland's Iga her Spheretek.
Gauff is playing doubles with Jessica Pegula in the tournament, but it was not immediately announced whether she would continue. There's also the issue that she's less than two weeks away from the US Open.
Bouzkova faced Alison Riske-Amritraj in the second round.
Meanwhile, Japan's Naomi Osaka was also eliminated in the first round as China's Zhang Shuai beat her and she won 6-4, 7-5 in just her 75 minutes.
Osaka was an ace and she held a 10-4 lead, but a disappointing setback saw her score only 37.1% of her points on her second serve. Osaka committed 29 unforced errors and recorded 21 winners.
Chan, who has four aces, will face Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia in the second round.
Romania's Sorana Cirstea also scored an upset, with No. 12-seeded Swiss Belinda beating Bencic 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-4. Cirstea scored eight aces and saved five of her seven break points in a match that lasted 2 hours and 38 minutes.
14th-seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova won her 7-5, 6-1 victory over Venus' Williams. Pliskova was an ace and she had an 8-2 lead.
"I think we're finally leveling up," said Pliskova. "Hard courts are my favourite. I've always had good results in America, so I hope I can play more matches here."
Pliskova next faces Belgium's Elise She faces Mertens To do. Ellis She Mertens beat Ukraine's Angelina Kalinina with her 6-1 6-1 win.
Shelby Rogers also hit out his nine serves his aces, beating out fellow American Sophia Kenin with her 6-1 6-2 record in just 66 minutes. .
In other matches, Russia's Anna Kalinskaya beat Italy's Martina Trevisan 7-6(2) 7-5 while Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk defeated Italy's Camila Giorgi 6-4 5-7 6. -4 down. No. 16 seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia beat last week's finalist Beatriz Haddad of Brazil of Toronto in her Maia 6-4 6-4.
– Field Level Media
