Ajla Tomljanovic KOs Venus Williams in Austin opener

Venus Williams remained winless on the year after dropping her first-round match to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 6-4, 6-1 on Tuesday at the ATX Open in Austin, Texas.

Williams, 45, is 0-4 for the season, including a loss to Serbia’s Olga Danilovic at the Australian Open last month. The seven-time major champion has lost seven singles matches in a row dating back to defeats last summer in Cincinnati and then at the US Open against the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova.

The Tuesday match featured seven service breaks, five by Tomljanovic, who lost three of the first four games before dominating the rest.

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The day’s action saw two seeded players fall. Ashlyn Krueger defeated seventh-seeded Caty McNally 6-1, 7-6 (5) in an all-U.S. matchup, and Australia’s Kimberly Birrell rallied past eighth-seeded Croatian Petra Marcinko 0-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Second-seeded Iva Jovic of the U.S. ousted Russia’s Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-4, and the United States’ Peyton Stearns overtook Great Britain’s Francesca Jones 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Also advancing were Russia’s Anastasia Zakharova, China’s Yue Yuan, Hungary’s Dalma Galfi, Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan and the United States’ Caroline Dolehide.

Merida Open Akron

Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez, back at the site of her lone WTA tour title, trounced Canadian qualifier Cadence Brace 6-2, 6-0 in the first round at Merida, Mexico.

Sonmez, the event’s 2024 champion, needed just 61 minutes to get past Brace, a 20-year-old who is ranked 204th in the world. Sonmez won 30 of the 40 points on Brace’s serve.

Colombia’s Camila Osorio powered past sixth-seeded Janice Tjen of Indonesia 6-4, 6-3. Seventh-seeded Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain dominated Great Britain’s Heather Watson 6-3, 6-1, and eighth-seeded Magda Linette of Poland topped Germany’s Tatjana Maria 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Other first-round winners were China’s Shuai Zhang, Poland’s Magdalena Frech, Spain’s Cristina Bucsa. In the last match of the night, Australia’s Priscilla Hon, a lucky loser from qualifying, edged Mexico’s Renata Zarazua 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.