Venus Upsets Top-Seeded Azarenka at Toray Pan Pacific Open
Venus Williams was an upset winner over the top-seeded Victoria Azarenka in her opening match at the Toray Pan Pacific Open on Tuesday, 6-2, 6-4. Venus had won two of the pair’s previous meetings, those were both before her illness and injury struggles of the last few years. On Tuesday, Venus won 75 percent of her first serve points, breaking serve five times during the match as well in the win.
Venus and Azarenka’s other two meetings came at the Olympics in 2008 where Venus was a 6-3, 6-2 winner, and in Dubai in 2010 where Venus won 6-3, 7-5.
"I don’t think Victoria was feeling her best … hopefully she’ll be feeling better and ready for Beijing. Lord knows I know what it’s like not to feel great," said Venus after the match. "But other than that, obviously it’s great to win today, but the tournament’s not over, it just started, so I have to continue playing well now."
Second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska fell behind Aleksandra Wozniak 4-2 in the first set, but went on to a 7-6(5), 6-0 straight sets victory. Radwanska rallied from a set down on Sunday to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-4 to win the Korea Open in Seoul.
"Coming from Seoul, I didn’t really have much time to adjust and rest, but it’s always good to win a tournament and I’m happy to play again this week," Radwanska said. "I think winning last week gave me a lot of confidence. Today I played much better after I won the first set, and I’m feeling good."
