Venus Williams's run at the Aegon International grass-court tournament in Eastbourne — her first tournament on her return from a long lay-off — came to a grinding halt in the quarterfinals on Thursday when she lost 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 to Daniela Hantuchova.
This was Hantuchova's first win over Venus after ten losses.
“I felt I came out and played well early in the match,” said the winner. “The wind picked up and made things tough for both of us.
Venus, her ranking down to 33, is playing an event for the first time in five months after an abdominal injury which forced her to quit a match at the Australian Open in January.
Her sister Serena came back this week after almost a year off court due to two operations — on a cut foot last year and one in February to remove blood clots from her lungs.
Hantuchova won the opening set in 39 minutes from two breaks. After claiming the first, she led 4-2 in the second and looked to be cruising before Venus fought back to eventually square the match.
In the third, the Slovak got off to a break in the opening game, only to lose it in the fourth. But the 28-year-old fought on to break Venus right back before repeating the effort and serving out the win on her first match point.
Bopanna & Qureshi fall
In a late doubles match on Wednesday, Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Qureshi, returning to the court for their second match of the day, suffered a 7-5, 6-3 quarterfinal loss to Grigor Dimitrov and Andreas Seppi.
Important results: In Eastbourne (Aegon International): Men: Second round: Radek Stepanek bt Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 6-3; Janko Tipsarevic bt Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 7-6(2); Olivier Rochus bt Carlos Berlocq 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(3); Kei Nishikori bt Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Doubles: Quarterfinals: Grigor Dimitrov & Andreas Seppi bt Rohan Bopanna & Aisam Qureshi 7-5, 6-3.
Women: Quarterfinals: Daniela Hantuchova bt Venus Williams 6-2, 5-7, 6-2; Petra Kvitova bt Agnieszka Radwanska 1-6, 6-2, 7-6(2). Second round: Daniela Hantuchova bt Li Na 7-6(7), 6-3.
In s'Hertogenbosch (UNICEF Open): Men: Second round: Marcos Baghdatis bt Robin Haase 7-5, 6-4; Denis Gremalmayr bt Jarkko Nieminen 7-6(3), 2-6, 7-6(5).
Women: Quarterfinals: Romina Oprandi bt Kimiko Date-Krumm 7-6(3), 6-4; Jelena Dokic bt Johanna Larsson 7-6(2), 6-4; Roberta Vinci bt Yanina Wickmayer 6-4, 6-4. Second round: Svetlana Kuznetsova bt Sara Errani 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-1.
