Lawn Tennis: Serena Put Worries Behind Her

 

Serena Williams got herself  back on the winning track with a 7-5 6-3 win over Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in her opening match at the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday.

Williams prevailed in 90 minutes and showed none of the rare struggles that dogged her during last week's semi-final loss to Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic in Toronto. The defending Cincinnati Champion, who is aiming for a rare sweep of the four grand slam events at the August 31-September 13 US Open, broke Pironkova's serve once in each set and then sealed the win in style with her 15th ace of the match. She will now meet Italian Karin Knapp in the third round. Knapp beat Russian Daria Gavrilova 6-4 6-1

Williams would be missing next week's Connecticut Open in order to prepare for the US Open, where she will look to earn her fifth consecutive grand slam singles title and fourth of 2015

In other women's action Romanian third seed Simona Halep who lost to bencic, beat Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic 7-5 5-7 6-4 while Czech seventh seed Lucie Safarova advanced with a 6-4 7-5 win over American wild card Coco Vandeweghe