Home » Serena Williams and Venus Williams’ performance in the National Bank Open was mixed.

At the National Bank Open in Toronto on Monday, Serena Williams advanced to the second round. In one hour and 57 minutes, the former world number one defeated Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz, 6-3, 6-4. Williams‘ last victory came at the 2021 French Open, where she advanced to the round of 16 by defeating fellow countrywoman Danielle Collins.

But following that, Williams only participated in Wimbledon in 2021 and 2022. Williams won 67 percent of the first-serve points she faced from Parrizas Diaz, saving seven of the eight break points she faced. On Parrizas Diaz’s serve, she went on to convert three of her five break points.

Williams will compete against either Tereza Martincova or Belinda Bencic, the 12th seed, in the second round.

Open National Bank: Venus Williams continues to struggle

In contrast, Venus Williams struggled in her first-round encounter against Jil Teichmann of Switzerland.

In the end, after an hour and fifteen minutes of play, the latter defeated the seven-time Major champion, 6-2, 6-3. Teichmann defeated the American’s second serve by winning 81 percent of the points she received in return, while only being able to win 38 percent of her first-serve points.

In the course of the match, Teichmann dropped her serve twice but broke Williams‘ serve three times. Teichmann will face second-seeded Anett Kontaveit in the round of 32; Kontaveit had a first-round bye. The first champion of the 2022 edition of the competition was Simona Halep.

In their first-round match, the Romanian easily defeated qualifier Donna Vekic, 6-0, 6-2, in 61 minutes. Although the 15th seed didn’t have to deal with any break points, she managed to break five times on the Croatian’s serve. Halep has previously won the National Bank Open in Montreal twice, in 2016 and 2018, and her best performance at the event in Toronto was reaching the final in 2015. (l to Belinda Bencic).

In an effort to advance to the third round this year, Halep will take on either qualifier Cristina Bucsa or Shuai Zhang. Image Source: WTA Twitter