Venus Williams takes a battering in French Open defeat

James Olley
29 May 2009

Venus Williams has crashed out of the French Open after losing in straight sets to Agnes Szavay of Hungary.

The No3 seed was beaten 6-0, 6-4 in one hour and 21 minutes on Court Suzanne Lenglen as she slumped to a third-round exit at Roland Garros.
It is the third consecutive year Williams has gone out at this stage and, in truth, she never looked comfortable in any of her matches this week.

Williams had saved a match point in her previous clash against Lucie Safarova and needed three sets to battle past Bethanie Mattek-Sands in round one. The 28-year-old reached the final in 2002 — losing to sister Serena — but was simply outmanoeuvred and overpowered by a player who has not won a WTA Tour title in two years.

Szavay, who is into the fourth round in Paris for the first time, maintained her aggression throughout as she battered Williams's second serve.

The American won just 35 per cent of points on her second delivery and was broken five times amid a barrage of fierce hitting.

Szavay needed just half an hour to breeze through the first set as Williams hit the majority of her 23 unforced errors to prompt concerned looks towards father and coach Richard Williams. The second was a more competitive affair with Williams managing a break of her own to lead 4-3.

But Szavay rattled off the next three games as her opponent dumped a simple backhand in the net to lose the match. Williams's defeat boosts the chances of top seed Dinara Safina, who beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-0 today, and defending champion Ana Ivanovic, as both are in the same half of the draw.

Ivanovic eased into the fourth round with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over No32 seed Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic but insisted her success was more difficult than the scoreline suggests.

The Serbian breezed through the first set but encountered some resistance in the second before setting up a fourth-round clash with either No9 seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus or No22 seed Carlo Suarez Navarro of Spain.

She said: “The score doesn't indicate how hard I had to work. She started playing much better in the second set and started hitting the ball much heavier. I just played really good and stayed in the moment and did what I had to do out there.

“I need match confidence. I was thinking I felt very good in my practice sessions but never had chance to play many matches in a row. Now I allow myself to make some mistakes and work myself into a tournament. I did that really well, so I'm really happy.”

Novak Djokovic finished off his third-round match with ease against Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky. The No4 seed led by two sets when play was suspended last night and closed out the match 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.

The Serb now faces No29 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany and he said: “I already felt today much better. Kohlschreiber is a really good clay-court specialist and a good baseline player, so we're going to have a lot of long rallies in the match.”

There were also wins for Fernando Verdasco, who beat fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro in straight sets, while Aravane Rezai launched a complaint before defeating Portuguese teenager Michelle Larcher De Brito 7-6, 6-2.

The Frenchwoman complained about De Brito's grunting but the 16-year-old said: “I guess that was a bit of her tactic to throw me off a little bit. It threw me off a little but I guess she has to find a way to win.”