Venus Williams and Angelique Kerber suffer second round defeats in Cincinnati
Thursday 17 August 2017 10:25, UK
Venus Williams and Angelique Kerber both suffered early exits in the women's event at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
An impressive field has assembled as the top players fine tune preparations for the US Open in just over a week and as well as the title, the no 1 ranking is also up for grabs.
A host of names are in the frame to claim top spot, although Kerber lost her chance to regain the position as she went down to a three-set defeat to Russia's Ekaterina Makarova.
Having lost his position at the top of the game following third round defeat at Wimbledon, Kerber's struggles have continued and despite battling back to claim the second set she was beaten 6-4 1-6 7-6 by world no 39 Makarova, who edged the final set tie-break 13-11.
There was also a shock defeat for ninth seed Williams who crashed out at the hands of Australian qualifier Ashleigh Barty.
The 21-year-old got the better of Williams to record her first victory over a top 10 player, beating the seven-time singles Grand Slam champion 6-3 2-6 6-2 and Williams was left to head for a break as she looks to go one better than runners-up finishes at Wimbledon and the Australian Open.
"I'm going to take a break and have a rest - I'm just planning on being super rested," she said.
In the battle to be number one, the current incumbent and defending champion Karolina Pliskova dropped just five games in beating Russian lucky loser Natalia Vikhlyantseva.
That means Caroline Wozniacki, who beat Elena Vesnina cannot overtake her and it is just world no 2 Simona Halep and world no 4 Elina Svitolina who could leapfrog Pliskova depending on results over the next few days.
