US off to strong start in Fed Cup defense

Defending Fed Cup champions the United States were one point from advancing to the semifinals on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) after a comfortable victory for Venus Williams, with sister Serena waiting in the wings for her much-anticipated comeback.

Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams needed an hour and 19 minutes to brush aside her 124th- ranked Dutch opponent Arantxa Rus 6-1, 6-4.

A more labored win followed for the mercurial CoCo Vandeweghe, who lost her first set to Richel Hogenkamp and broke a racket in frustration during the second before fighting back to a 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 victory.

They were both cheered from the bench by Serena Williams, who is poised to make her own return to the sport on Sunday after a year away and the birth of her daughter Alexis Olympia, who attended in the arms of her father Alexis Ohanian one row behind.

Venus’ win came in her 1,000th career match and her 22nd singles appearance in a tournament she first played in 1999, but she insisted milestones were far from her mind.

“I don’t really know about these milestones when they happen,” she said. “It’s just great to be playing the game that I love — not really going for milestones, but then they happen.”

In front of a roaring home crowd in mountainous Asheville, North Carolina, Venus won the toss and served first, closing out the opening game with a searing ace in an early show of intent.

The second set saw the players locked in long rallies and the first five games resulted in service breaks.

They were level at 2-2 before Venus eventually began to pull away.

Williams acknowledged the second half was tighter than it could have been.

“I was trying to find the balance between going big and going too big,” she said. “I think that today’s match hopefully will help me for tomorrow.”

After reaching two Grand Slam finals in 2017, Williams lost in the first round of the Australian Open last month to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland. But the 37-year-old insisted she had plenty of time to turn things around.

“I think I’m playing well. I just had some bad luck, I played players who just were on fire,” she said. “Sometimes that happens, (it’s) just the beginning of the year.”

Serena, who is scheduled to play doubles on Sunday alongside Lauren Davis, received a big ovation during team introductions and sat on court with her teammates during Venus’s match.