Around sports: Federer off to good start; Venus, Sharapova drop out

Also leading the charge into the third round were seventh seed Marin Cilic and 16th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who ousted Joao Sousa and Vasek Pospisil in their respective two-set matches, but Milos Raonic and John Isner were among the seeds to tumble out of contention. He defeated Australian Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the Round of 16. He also beat him in straight sets in the quarterfinals at Memphis this year. “I’m working on a lot of things, but that is definitely one thing that I have tried my best to improve on”.

The Americans have teamed up in doubles for at least two tournaments each year since 2008.

“I know he was a little wobbled there in the first set, but besides that I felt I did everything well”, Querrey said. “It’s just part of the game”.

“It’s the first round of the hard court season for the next six plus months or so”, Federer told the ATP Tour website after his first match at the tournament having received a bye into the second round.

“We’re not used to that kind of talk in tennis”.

Controversial Nick Kyrgios, who hit the headlines last week when he taunted opponent Stan Wawrinka in Montreal, was crushed 6-2 6-1 by Richard Gasquet in the first round of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati on Tuesday.

Set to face Ana Ivanovic Tuesday, the 35-year-old Williams announced her decision shortly prior to the scheduled match.

“It’s a tough decision to make, but I think a wise one, in order to give myself the right amount of time to be as healthy as I can be for the Open, which I believe is very realistic”, Sharapova said.

“For most of the day I was not even aware – I mean, I knew I had a match tonight, but I was just wandering around doing stuff with my wife and my kids”.

“After warmups, I get a feel for how the match might go or how much you can give or you can’t give”, she said.

On the women’s side of the draw, American Sloane Stephens beat 10th seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-2, France’s Kristina Mladenovic sank Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-1, while Italian Flavia Pennetta beat 2014 Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova 7-5, 6-2. She won the first title of her pro career at the Citi Open on August 9 in Washington.

“(You’re) always like searching and trying to find that next great moment, and like that was like one Sunday where I had a great moment”, said the 22-year-old Stephens, a first-round loser at Toronto last week. I need matches right now, so it was good to start well here.