Birmingham: Williams, Barty, Ostapenko advance

On her Birmingham debut, Venus Williams delivered a strong performance, beating Aliaksandra Sasnovich in straight sets to reach the second round.

There she was joined by Ash Barty, after the reigning Roland Garros champion kicked off Wednesday’s schedule of play with a commanding victory over dangerous grass-court foe Donna Vekic.

Following Williams onto Centre Court was Jelena Ostapenko, who advanced to her first quarterfinal of 2019 with an impressive 6-3 6-4 dismissal of Johanna Konta.

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This year marks the first time since 2011 – when she appeared in Eastbourne – that Williams has opted to play a grass-court tournament in the lead-up to Wimbledon.

Her 6-3 6-4 win over Sasnovich was an impressive one, given Williams lagged almost 20 places lower in the rankings at No.55, and the fact Sasnovich reached the second week at Wimbledon last year.

“I though today was a really strong start, actually. A pretty cool match, not a lot of errors,” Williams said.

“I haven’t played a match in a few weeks and to play against an opponent you have never played before and on a new surface (is tough). So I was pleased to have played a pretty clean match.

“I know that I’m going to have to play well from hereon out and just to be able to play some patches and get my feet on the grass is a really good feeling.”

Williams, a wildcard, next faces China’s Wang Qiang for a place in the quarterfinals.

Barty, meanwhile, was playing in her first singles match since hoisting the French Open trophy in Paris.

And she showed no signs of slowing down on her favourite surface, extending her winning streak to eight with a 6-3 6-4 win over Croatia’s Vekic.

From a break down early in the first set, Barty reeled off seven of the next eight games to assume complete control, and ran out a victor in just 71 minutes.

“It was the perfect first test for me. I knew that I had to be sharp and I had to be ready. Otherwise it wouldn’t even be a contest,” the Australian said. “It was nice and clean today out here.

“Obviously it’s a little bit different (to Roland Garros) but I love playing here, I love playing on the grass, and Birmingham for me I have such good memories from this beautiful court.

“I was just really excited to come back out and kind of dust off the cobwebs a little bit.”

Ostapenko has shown an encouraging return to form this week on Birmingham’s lawns after entering the tournament with a 7-16 record since the start of the year.

WTA statwoman OSTAPENKO, Aljona: "This was actually just the second time I have won two matches in a row this year." Then she burst out laughing… at herself.

— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) June 19, 2019

She has won back-to-back matches for just the second time in 2019 thanks to her win over the seventh-seeded Konta, who at world No.18 is the highest-ranked opponent she has beaten this season.

The Latvian, a French Open champion in 2017 who thumped Iga Swiatek 6-0 6-2 in the first round, smacked 23 winners to Konta’s six on Wednesday.

Ostapenko next meets the winner of the match between Petra Martic and Margarita Gasparyan.

It's her first quarterfinal of 2019????@JelenaOstapenk8 claims the match over Konta 6-3, 6-4 ????#NatureValleyClassic pic.twitter.com/WCfyuffQ4r

— WTA (@WTA) June 19, 2019

Joining Ostapenko in the quarterfinals was Barbora Strycova, who stopped Hsieh Su-Wei 7-6(3) 6-3.

Jennifer Brady won her first-round match over Lesia Tsurenko 6-3 6-3 to set up a second-round clash with Barty.

In the last match of the day on Centre Court, qualifier Kristyna Pliskova stunned twin sister and third seed Karolina 6-2 3-6 7-6(7).

Kristyna struck a whopping 24 aces to defeat her sibling, who at world No.3 is the highest-ranked player she has beaten in 2019.

"I hope we can go to dinner."@KrisPliskova hopes her sister is up for a meal in Birmingham ????#NatureValleyClassic pic.twitter.com/4JwfS7jQ5O

— WTA (@WTA) June 19, 2019