Serena, Venus, Stosur advance in Cincy
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Serena Williams recorded a second-round victory Tuesday, while Venus Williams posted a first-round win at the WTA's $2.168 million Western & Southern Open.
Serena, the No. 2 seed, defeated Greek Eleni Daniilidou 6-3, 6-4.
The Wimbledon and Olympic gold medal champion Serena fired nine aces past Daniilidou to secure her spot in the third round.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
U.S. Open titlist Sam Stosur, the third seed, outlasted Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4.
In some other second-round play, fifth-seeded German left-hander Angelique Kerber overcame Hungarian lucky-loser Timea Babos 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 and Johanna Larsson of Sweden upset eighth-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-2. Kerber was a Wimbledon semifinalist last month.
The former world No. 1 Venus, a wild card this week, upended 12th-seeded Olympic semifinalist Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 on the hardcourts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Another opening-round upset came when Ekaterina Makarova got past 15th-seeded fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 7-6 (10-8), 3-1, retired, while 17th-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova avoided a first-round upset by cruising past Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4, 6-0.
Yaroslava Shvedova took down Lucie Safarova, the No. 16 seed, by a 6-3, 6-4 margin.
In additional opening-round action involving Americans, wild card Sloane Stephens handled Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4, 6-1, while Italian Roberta Vinci drubbed Madison Keys 6-3, 6-3 and Czech Andrea Hlavackova dismissed fellow qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3, 7-5.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa was leading Christina McHale 3-6, 6-3, 3-0 when the American retired from the match.
Additional first-round wins came for Slovak Daniela Hantuchova, Romanian Sorana Cirstea, Kazakhstanian qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva, Swede Sofia Arvidsson, and Georgian lucky-loser Anna Tatishvili.