Out of steam

Last week Tour’s winners Venus and Tsonga lose in first round at the Cincinnati Masters

Venus Williams failed to sustain the momentum from her run to last week’s Montreal final and ran out of gas in Cincinnati as she fell 6-7(2) 6-3 6-4 to 16th seed Lucie Safarova in the first round of the Western and Southern Open yesterday.

Williams, who beat her top-ranked younger sister Serena to reach the Rogers Cup final, where she lost to Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, looked like she might be ready to make another run in Cincinnati after taking the opening set in a tiebreak.

However, the seven-times grand slam champion could not convert any of her four break chances in the second while Safarova converted her one and only opportunity to level the match.

Czech Safarova, a Wimbledon semi-finalist, stepped up the pressure in the third with two more breaks to clinch her first win in five career meetings against the 34-year-old American.

“It was definitely a quick turnaround, maybe would have been a little better to play a little later in the day,” said Williams, back in top 20 for first time since March 2013 following her runner-up finish at Montreal. “But she just played so well. No matter what shot I hit she hit a winner, or if I hit it really deep she somehow managed to control it down the line.”

Fifth seed Maria Sharapova needed three sets to dispose of Madison Keys in her evening second round contest, finally prevailing 6-1 3-6 6-3 in just under two hours. In the other feature second round contests Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki made short work of China’s Zhang Shuai 6-2 6-3 win and second seed Simona Halep won 6-4 6-2 over Kirsten Flipkins.

Djoko back to winning

In the men’s section Novak Djokovic pulled his championship tennis back together after last week’s early exit, beating Gilles Simon 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the third round. The world No 1 was ambushed at the same stage in Toronto a week ago by eventual champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

“He’s not going to give you too many unforced errors and free points, so I knew that,” Djokovic said. “But I managed to get a win in the end, and that’s what matters.”

Tsonga came crashing back to earth after losing 6-1, 6-4 to Russian Mikhail Youzhny. The 29-year-old 12th seed found himself back on court 48 hours after beating Roger Federer to win the title in Toronto, the second at the Masters 1000 level of his career. But he failed to find the inspiration he had in Toronto -- where he also beat Djokovic and Andy Murray -- with canny veteran Youzhny taking full advantage of the physical state of last week’s champion.