KL, Florainopolis, Acapulco: Venus struggles

Florianopolis:

Second round 

Olga Puchkova (RUS) d Caroline Garcia (FRA) | 3 - 6 | 6 - 3 | 6 - 3 |

Monica Niculescu (ROU) d Tereza Mrdeza (CRO) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 1 | 

Timea Babos (HUN) d [4] Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 2 |

[7] Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) d Tatjana Malek (GER) | 6 - 2 | 6 - 1 |

Melinda Czink (HUN) d Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA) | 1 - 6 | 6 - 2 | 7 - 6 (3) | 

[5] Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) d Beatriz Garcia Vidagany (ESP) | 6 - 4 | 3 - 6 | 6 - 4 | 

[1] Venus Williams (USA) d Garbine Muguruza (ESP) | 6 - 4 | 2 - 6 | 7 - 5 | 

KL:

Second round 

[4] Ayumi Morita (JPN) d Nudnida Luangnam (THA) | 6 - 3 | 6 - 1 | 

Luksika Kumkhum (THA) d [7] Eleni Daniilidou (GRE) | 6 - 2 | 6 - 4 | 

Ashleigh Barty (AUS) d Zarina Diyas (KAZ) | 7 - 6 (3) | 6 - 4 | 

[3/W] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) d Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB) | 6 - 3 | 6 - 3 | 

Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) d Ying-Ying Duan (CHN) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 4 | 

Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) d Shuai Zhang (CHN) | 6 - 2 | 6 - 2 |

Karolina Pliskova (CZE) d [5] Misaki Doi (JPN) | 6 - 4 | 7 - 6 (7) | 

Patricia Mayr-Achleitner (AUT) d Qiang Wang (CHN) | 6 - 3 | 6 - 2 |

Acapulco:

Second round 

[3] Alize Cornet (FRA) d Estrella Cabeza Candela (ESP) | 6 - 4 | 6 - 4 |

[7] Lourdes Dominguez Lino (ESP) d Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor (ESP) | 6 - 4 | 3 - 0 |

Karin Knapp (ITA) d [8] Romina Oprandi (SUI) | 6 - 4 | 7 - 6 (2) | 

Silvia Soler-Espinosa (ESP) d [4] Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) | 6 - 1 | 2 - 1 |

[6/W] Francesca Schiavone (ITA) d Sesil Karatantcheva (KAZ) | 6 - 3 | 6 - 4 |

[2] Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) d Stephanie Foretz Gacon (FRA) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 2 |

[5] Kiki Bertens (NED) d Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (ESP) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 2 | 

[1] Sara Errani (ITA) d Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) | 7 - 6 (4) | 6 - 2 | 

Upset of the day:

Timea Babos (HUN) d [4] Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 2 |

What a hammering Timea dealt to Scheepers. This shows that Babos plays well without the pressure and with no expectations. With her points almost all dropped, Babos is no longer trying to justify her inflated ranking and can swing freely. Scheepers is having a woeful year and she's not exactly young anymore. If the results continue to fail her, I suspect her motivation will wane at the end of the year.

[1] Venus Williams (USA) d Garbine Muguruza (ESP) | 6 - 4 | 2 - 6 | 7 - 5 | 

Venus struggled mightily against the talented Muguruza and only managed to edge her out by the slightest margin. It is an exactly opposite of how her sister Serena dealt with the Spaniard back in Melbourne, where Serena cruised without much difficulty. Maybe age is catching up with her and she's definitely not at her peak now. One has to wonder if Venus really believes she can win another slam because performances like these are more frequent, and players are no longer intimidated by her anymore. 

Luksika Kumkhum (THA) d [7] Eleni Daniilidou (GRE) | 6 - 2 | 6 - 4 | 

The fearless Thai strikes again as she powers her way past the Greek veteran, Eleni Daniilidou. Luksika is lacking in experience and maybe that's why she's playing with no fear, aiming for the lines all the time. Daniilidou is way past her prime and she must really love the game to stay active for this long. I won't be surprised if she hangs her racket for good after this year.