By ,
Published February 05, 2015
Charleston, SC (SportsNetwork.com) - Former champion Venus Williams was a hard-fought opening-round winner Tuesday at the Family Circle Cup tennis event.
The 11th-seeded former world No. 1 held off Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-3, 0-6, 7-5 in 2 hours, 18 minutes on the green clay at Family Circle Tennis Center. Venus titled here 10 years ago.
Seventh-seeded Aussie Sam Stosur, the 2010 Charleston champ, got past Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 in second-round play.
In other opening-round action involving seeds, No. 12 Daniela Hantuchova topped American wild card Shelby Rogers 7-5, 7-5; No. 13 Russian Elena Vesnina whipped Slovak Anna Schmiedlova 6-2, 6-1; No. 14 German Andrea Petkovic overcame Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-1; and No. 16 Chinese Zhang Shuai fought back to beat Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-0).
Also in round one, American Vania King came back to beat Israeli Julia Glushko 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, China's Peng Shuai drubbed France's Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-3 and Lourdes Dominguez Lino erased fellow Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-2.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/venus-wins-charleston-opener