January 6, 2011 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Venus Williams was defeated by second-ranked Vera Zvonareva, 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday at the Hong Kong Classic exhibition tournament in her first match since the U.S. Open. Williams had been out with a knee injury since September and is using this tournament as her only warmup before playing the Australian Open.
The two players traded breaks in the second and third games of the first set before Zvonareva broke Williams in the fourth game. Zvonareva broke again in the first game of the second set and didn’t look back on her way to victory.
Zvonareva, who is 1-7 against the older Williams sister on the WTA tour, got a rare win as the Russian tries to build on a successful 2010 season, when she reached two consecutive major finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, will remain in Hong Kong, as she will play another singles match and is playing mixed doubles with John McEnroe.
Earlier in the day, American teenager Melanie Oudin was up a set and a break but lost to Maria Kirilenko, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-0.
