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Venus Williams, Juan Martin Del Potro register easy victories at US Open
Juan Martin del Potro and Venus Williams advanced to the US Open second round while Dominika Cibulkova became the latest casualty as she was defeated 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 by Sloane Stephens.
Juan Martin del Potro and Venus Williams registered easy victories to reach the US Open second round at the Flushing Meadows in New York on Thursday.
The 2009 winner Juan Martin del Potro kicked off his campaign with a 6-4 7-6(3) 7-6(5) win over Swiss Henri Laaksonen. He will now face Spaniard Adrian Menendez-Maceiras in the next round.
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Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams also continued her winning run in the competition as the US ninth seed defeated France’s Oceane Dodin 7-5, 6-4.
This year’s Wimbledon and Australian Open runner-up is the field’s oldest woman at 37 and she is among seven women who could become world number one after the US Open.
Russian eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion, rescued three match points in defeating 67th-ranked Czech Marketa Vondrousova 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) to reach the second round.
In the other match of the day which featured a top seeded player, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina successfully held off 42nd-ranked Czech Katerina Siniakova 6-0, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 to advance to the next stage.
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Eleventh-seed Dominika Cibulkova, however, became the latest casualty as she was defeated 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 by Sloane Stephens of the US in a hard-fought encounter.
