Evergreen Venus coasts into Montreal third round

Venus Williams breezed into the third round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Wednesday with a straight sets rout of Barbora Strycova as home hope Eugenie Bouchard upset 11th seed Dominika Cibulkova.
Sixth seed Williams, 36, showed no sign of lingering weariness following her defeat in the final of the WTA Stanford event in California last weekend, maintaining her 100 percent record over Strycova with a 6-3, 6-0 win.
Williams was pleased to have wrapped up the win in under an hour after a marathon three-hour battle with Strycova in their previous encounter.
“It was definitely more straightforward I think than all of our other matches,” Williams said.
“I didn’t mind that, especially after playing a lot last week, just to be able to come out and hopefully advance to the next round.
“It’s been intense. Usually I don’t play this much back-to-back. But I knew what I was going to do going into the year, what it was going to take.”
Strycova paid the price for a failure to put pressure on Williams’ suspect service game in the second set.
Strycova managed to earn only one break point — unconverted — but was in turn broken three times as Williams raced into the next round.
Elsewhere, Canada’s Bouchard delighted her hometown crowd with a 6-2, 6-0 drubbing of Cibulkova.
Victory was sweet for the former world number five, who lost to Cibulkova at Wimbledon earlier this month.
“It’s special playing in Montreal,” Bouchard said afterwards during her on-court interview.
“I don’t get to do it often, so it just makes me extra motivated to play in front of you guys.”
Bouchard’s win came just a day after a gruelling three-set battle with Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
Bouchard had also been hit by a stomach complaint during a doubles match later Tuesday.
However she looked comfortable during a victory in one hour 13 minutes on Wednesday, saving seven break points while unfurling a stream of winners — 22 in total — to clinch victory.
“I felt very solid and very focused; it’s important for me to keep my focus and keep my energy up,” said Bouchard, who faces another Slovak, Kristina Kucova in the next round.
“I need to keep playing my game, no matter who’s on the other side of the net,” Bouchard said as she looked ahead. “It’s about me, being aggressive and enjoying it.”