10th on the trot as Williams wastes another wild card

VenUs Williams lost her 10th match in a row as the former great lost as a wild card at the Miami Masters first round.

The 45-year-old ranked 517 was given a free entry by Miami organisers. But the gift did little as the seven-time Grand Slam champion was defeated 7-5, 7-5 by Brit Francesca Jones, the world No. 93

Williams also played and lost as a wild card at Indian Wells and won her last match in July and lifted her seventh trophy at a Grand Slam in 2008 – 18 years ago.

The veteran has played Miami 22 times, winning it on three occasions. Jones, was born in 2000, a year in which the Williams career was already fading.

“She’s amazing, it’s phenomenal. People might focus on the fact that she’s lost consecutive matches, but I think we have to recognize that [recently] she’s played some tough three-setters,” Jones said.

“She doesn’t lose the serve [often], and it’s the vital part of the game. Of course, her movement isn’t what it used to be.

“I think there’s no reason she can’t win matches, and I fully believe that she’s at a level where she can compete.
“I just think she just needs to keep going. She’s building.”

Jones recalled watching Wiliams and sister Serena at WImbledon as a child sitting in the stands with her father.

The winner earned her first match win since January and the 17th Tour-level victory of her career. She is the first since 2009 when this record began to record a first 1000-level match win over a former world No 1.

Since the format’s introduction in 2009, Jones is the first player to record a first WTA 1000 match-win over a former World No. 1

Magda Linette delivered a short, sharp shock to fellow Pole Iga Swiatek, sending the former No. 1 out in  an opening match 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 in a first opening-match loss for the world No. 3 in half a decade.

Swiatek let her grip on the second-round match slip with a double-fault to gie a pair of set points to Linette, who took full advantage.

The 34-year-old reached 4-2 in the final set and sealed the win on her fifth match point.

Linette will next line up against Filipina sensation Alexandre Eala, who won the longest match so far in her young career, taking nearly three and  a half hours to beat Laura Siegemund, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-3.