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Venus sweats it out to move ahead; Verdasco Ousted in Mexico

By KarenWalker (TennisEarth.com), Submitted On

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Top-seeded American Venus Williams survived the 1-5 down scare in the final set and clawed her way back to victory against Spanish qualifier Laura Pous Tio in Abierto Mexicano Telcel, Acapulco. This was the match that had everything, Tio made it a harder-than-expected duel for Williams, but finally the experience prevailed as Venus wrapped up the match with 4-6 6-3 7-5. In WTA rankings Pous Tios is ranked No. 399.

Williams made it difficult for herself with some uncharacteristic ground strokes that apparently reveal her weak grip over the clay court. Reflecting upon her shoddy performance, Venus said, “I just thought I’m not going to give it to her. That’s the first thing I thought.” She chuckled, “If I never experience that again, I can remember today.”

In other matches of women's quarterfinals, No. 5 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain beat No.3 Gisela Dulko of Argentina 6-1 7-6 (4) and Edina Gallovits of Romania registered an easy win over Sharon Fichman of Canada, 7-5 6-2. Other semifinals qualifiers are Polona Hercog of Slovenia, who defeated  Agnes Szavay of Hungary. Hercog wrapped up the first set 6-4 and second set could not proceed further beyond 1-0, as Szavay retired with a thigh injury.

In men's matches, top-seeded Fernando Verdasco was convincingly defeated by Argentine Juan Monaco 7-5 6-3. With this win, Monaco earned his berth in the semi-finals of the tournament. Lamenting over his performance, Verdasco said, “I played better than the first two days here, but I still didn’t have the level I needed to beat a solid player on clay - and one who played well like Juan.”

Monaco looked satisfied over his performance, as he quoted, “I have beaten a top 10 guy who has been playing well for several years. But I can’t think about it too much because tomorrow I have to start from zero. When I won the first set, the second was easier and I played with more confidence and was more aggressive.”

In other matches,  Fernando Gonzalez of Chile cruised to victory against Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 3-6  6-3 7-5. Other winner was third-seeded David Ferrer of Spain, who defeated Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 7-5 6-4.