Venus Rolls Past Teenager in Coupe Banque Nationale First Round
Venus Williams rebounded nicely from her tough US Open loss two weeks ago, defeating 17-year old Canadian Francoise Abanda in the opening round of the Coupe Banque Nationale in Quebec City on Tuesday night.
“I definitely expected a really competitive match,” said Williams. “I saw Francoise play in Montreal, I was actually rooting for her, she was playing so well and got so close. So I figured she’d come out and do really well. Most of the opponents that I play against come out and play well against me.”
Abanda did come out playing well and even took a 3-1 lead over Williams in the opening set. Williams settled in after that, however, and battled back to take the first set 7-5.
From there, the match belonged to the veteran American. She began to pick up things in Abanda’s game that she could take advantage of, and rolled to a 6-3 set win to wrap up the victory in 85 minutes.
Abanda’s idol growing up was Venus Williams, something that the top-seeded Williams could relate to.
“During the warm-up I thought about when I was, I don’t know how old, 16, when I played Steffi Graf, and I remember it was a very close match,” recalled Venus. “It was maybe 6-4, 6-4. I didn’t have the tools to understand how to win. I had the talent, but not the tools. You just have to get more experience and get better.”
Venus went on to talk about these types of losses when you are young are crucial to developing into a more experience player. She now moves on to face Ukraine’s Olga Savchuck in the next round.
The second, Alja Tomljanovic, and third, Kristina Mladenovic, seeds of the tournament also moved on Tuesday, while sixth-seeded Michelle Larcher de Brito fell to Lucie Hradecka in straight sets.
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who knocked off second-ranked Simona Halep on her way to a fourth-round appearance at the US Open, also pushed her way into the second round of this tournament with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Paraguay’s Veronica Cepede Royg.
