PARMA: Serena Williams disappointing return to tennis continued when she lost in straight sets to 68th-ranked Katerina Siniakova in the second round of the Emilia-Romagna Open on Tuesday.

Top-seeded Serena, who accepted a wild-card invitation for the Parma tournament after losing her opening match at the Italian Open last week, was beaten 7-6 (4), 6-2.

She had beaten teenage qualifier Lisa Pigato 6-3, 6-2 in the previous round for her first victory since defeating Simona Halep in the Australian Open quarter-finals in February. After some time off, Serena then lost in straight sets in Rome to Nadia Podoroska.

Siniakova saved a set point at 5-4 down in the opening set and that appeared to give the Czech player confidence as after securing the tiebreak she pulled away in the second to win 16 of the last 18 points.

The 39-year-old Serena racked up double faults under pressure and Siniakova sealed the result on her third match point when the American hit a forehand long. Williams had seven double faults for the match.

Former US Open champion Sloane Stephens reached the quarter-finals after rallying to beat fourth-seeded Daria Kasatkina 1-6, 6-4, 7-5. Third-seeded Coco Gauff eliminated Kaia Kanepi 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (9-7) in a first-round match. Second-seeded Petra Martic also got her Parma campaign off to a good start by beating Varvara Gracheva 6-4, 6-2.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2021