Venus falls in final
Published: August 03, 2009, 12:30 am
Story tools:
Share this story:
Venus Williams was upset by France’s Marion Bartoli, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, in the championship match of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, Calif., on Sunday.
Williams, making her first appearance at the event since 2005, was playing in her seventh final in eight appearances at Stanford. She’s won two titles but none since 2002.
The eighth-seeded Bartoli, who lost in last year’s final, played a steady match against the second-seeded Williams and will likely move up two places into 12th when the next world rankings are released.
“Marion played really well,” said Williams, who is expected to remain third. “I couldn’t find my game. I was fighting myself a lot and I couldn’t find the court. I’m not used to that.”
Bartoli made an adjustment this season with her serve to get more power from her legs, and it helped keep Williams— who favors a strong baseline game—on her heels.
“I had a great tournament,” Williams told a record crowd of 3,852 after the match. “Marion was too good today.”
Williams fell to 31-8 on the season, with four of those losses to top-15 players. She lost for just the third time in her last 15 matches.
Elsewhere, top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko routed former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-3, 6-0 to win the Croatia Open.
It was the Russian’s 16th career title and comes a week after he won the German Open. Davydenko, ranked No. 9, is 18-3 since the French Open.
Newsletters
Sign up now for daily and weekly newsletters from BuffaloNews.com and get quick links to the info you want delivered directly to your inbox.Reader comments
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Comments have been disabled.
Due to a high volume of submissions that violate The News’ guidelines, commenting is no longer available on this story. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this story, click here to get information on contributing to The News’ opinion pages.