Williams gets past Watson, while Keys forced out
SAN JOSE » Venus Williams beat Heather Watson 6- 4, 4- 6, 6- 0 on Thursday night in the second round of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic.
The third- seeded Williams is the highest-seeded player remaining in the event after defending champion Madison Keys joined top- seed Garbine Muguruza, a Wednesday scratch, on the sideline due to a right wrist injury.
Keys, the defending champion when it was known as the Bank of the West and played at Stanford, was slated to play Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic. Tomljanovic then went out and beat replacementMagdalena Frech 6- 4, 3- 6, 6-3.
“I have been feeling pain in my wrist over the last couple of days and felt worse today,” Keys said in a statement.
Venus takes on Maria Sakkari of Greece today in the quarterfinals. Sakari won 11 straight games against Hungarian Timea Babos, winning 6- 0, 6-1.
The two have played twice previously at Grand Slams in the past two years, with the American winning encounters at Wimbledon in 2016 and at the U.S. Open last year.
“I have to play my best again. I know that it’s never easy, and I’ll have to earn it, just like,” she said. “So, I’ll be doing the same thing tomorrow.”
The American’s winning debut on the campus of San Jose State University comes in her 14th appearance at this week’s event, having reached eight finals in this event in her career.
Williams is a two-time champion, lifting the title in 2000 and 2002. In addition, she finished as the runner- up in this event in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2016.
Romanian fifth- seed Mihaela Buzarnescu beat 16-year- old American qualifier Amanda Anisimova 7- 5, 2- 6, 6-1 to reach her seventh WTA quarterfinal of the season. Buzarnescu rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the opening set, and broke Anisimova’s serve to start the third set en route to a 4- 0 lead.
“It wasnot an easymatch because she’s such a young player,” Buzarnescu said. “She’s from the new generation, and I’m from the old one, and I knew the pressure would be on me because she has nothing to lose. In the third set, I really managed to play well, and play my own game.”
The 30-year- old Romanian, ranked No. 24 in the world, finished the encounter against her young foe with 26 winners, eight more than Anisimova. Anisimova, the reigning U. S. Open junior singles champion who turns 17 next month, impressed during the second set but was undone by 46 unforced errors during the match.