Venus Williams defeats Akgul Amanmuradova in the opening round – Wimbledon Championships 2011
America’s Venus Williams was amazingly upbeat in her first round match at the Wimbledon Championships, when she defeated Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan in straight sets.
The 31-year-old American played some spectacular tennis to win 6-3, 6-1 and moved into the second round of the tournament where she will face Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan for a place in the third round of the tournament.
Williams’s tennis was watertight at the start of the match, surrendering just four points on her first serve, and it was this accuracy which fashioned Williams the break of serve, and a comfortable rhythm for the former world number one.
However, as the business end of the set encroached, the American did start to tighten up, and this profligacy allowed Amanmuradova back into the match. With the match back on serve, it seemed reasonable to expect a tie-breaker to decide the set, but Williams redeemed herself tremendously, and roared back to take the first set, six games to three.
The American player wrapped up the first set with three aces and a whopping fifteen winners. Not to mention, she clinched 82 percent on her first serve and 43 percent on her second serve respectively. In contrast the Uzbek lost the first set with a difference of seven points on her first serve.
After losing her first set, the Uzbek seemed to drop the level of her game. She looked totally frustrated by the variety and sheer athleticism of Williams’s defence and started to misfire long and wide, a testament of her frustration and lack of patience. This eventually resulted in Uzbek’s humiliating defeat, as she lost the second set with a breadstick.
In the second set, Williams delivered a whopping four aces, 69 percent on first serve and won an impressive 89 percent on them. In contrast, Amanmuradova failed to show the spark and could only win a meager 44 percent on her first serve.
Emerging victorious, Williams has extended her year-to-date win-loss mark to 5-2 matches and now marches on into the second round where she will face Kimiko Date-Krumm for the first time in her career.
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