Yarra Valley Classic tennis: Venus Williams crushes Arantxa Rus to set up Petra Kvitova showdown

ByReuters

Updated 31/01/2021 at 09:54 GMT

Former world number one Venus Williams will play Petra Kvitova in the next round of the exhibition tournament in Melbourne. The tournament is one of six arranged by Tennis Australia before the start of the Australian Open to allow players a chance of some match action after two weeks in quarantine hotels.

Venus Williams

Image credit: Getty Images

Former world number one Venus Williams produced a vintage display to outclass Netherlands' Arantxa Rus in straight sets and storm into the second round of the Yarra Valley Classic as a packed week of Australian Open warm-up events kicked off on Sunday.

The 40-year-old American broke serve twice in each set to canter to a 6-1 6-3 victory in a little over an hour.

The American sets up a date with fourth seed Petra Kvitova in the next round.

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American 13th seed Danielle Collins also had a straightforward outing as she eased to a 6-3 6-3 win against Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure. She was joined in the second round by compatriot Shelby Rogers, who upset 12th seed Fiona Ferro 6-2 7-5.

Australia's Daria Gavrilova opted to skip karaoke night with a friend and instead made Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova dance to her tunes, racing to a 6-2 6-0 win in under just 65 minutes.

"I missed a big event with my friend Greg's birthday and going to karaoke and I was pretty upset about that and thought I had to lock it in today," said the 26-year-old, who faces 23-times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams next after the American received a first-round bye.

Also advancing was Czech Republic's Marie Bouzkova, who downed home favourite and former U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur 6-2 6-0.

Unseeded Romanian Ana Bogdan crushed Russian teenager Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2 6-2 to set up a date with top seed Ash Barty.

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The 2021 Australian Open is live and exclusive on Eurosport. You can watch every moment on eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app.

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