Venus Williams displayed far from her best game on Monday, but she turned on the jets in the second set and made her way through her opening round match in Montreal with a 7-5, 6-1 defeat of fellow American Caroline Dolehide.
A handful of other seeded players, including No. 9 seed Karolina Pliskova and No. 10 seed Julia Goerges, also advanced on a sweltering afternoon in Quebec.
Williams, meanwhile, looked out of sorts in the early going, chunking two forehands long and double faulting on break point to hand Dolehide a 2-1 lead. Though her serve appeared less than 100 percent, she quickly picked up her return play, breaking the 19-year-old qualifier to level the set and forcing four break points in a subsequent game.
She raced ahead 0-40 on Dolehide’s serve at 5-6, then pushed a forehand into the corner on her second set point. That appeared to invigorate the seven-time grand slam champion, who won the first five games of the second set and needed just 29 minutes to complete it.
She needed just one match point, pounding a backhand deep into the corner that Dolehide — a first-time opponent — barely reached.
The No. 13 seed faced only the one break point, and won more than 70 percent of service points despite making barely half of first serves.
“Sometimes it takes some time to figure it out” against a new opponent,” Williams said on-court. “I’m happy with the second set.”
Pliskova also came through in straight sets despite missing her finest play. She instead came up big at the biggest moments, breaking Katerina Siniakova’s serve at 4-5 in each set to secure her 6-4, 6-4 win in an hour and 29 minutes.
She raced ahead 0-40 at 4-5 in the first set, forcing her first break points, and elevated her return play to close out the set quickly. She maintained that form into the second set, securing an early break, but gave it back before again rising at the business end of the frame.
Pliskova hit 28 winners to 26 unforced errors despite nine double faults; she saved two of just three break points Siniakova, her fellow Czech, earned.
“First hard court match after Wimbledon … I think it was quite good quality for me,” she said on-court.
Goerges needed well over two hours to defeat Timea Babos 3-6, 7-6, 6-4. Seventeen aces aided the German, who forced no break points until the third set but converted the only one she needed. Elsewhere, Lucie Safarova upset Daria Gavrilova in three sets to set up a second round affair with Georges.
