Tennis:Venus advances, Bouchard out in Montreal

Venus Williams rebounded from a shaky second set to defeat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 in the first round of the Rogers Cup on Tuesday.

Elena Vesnina stepped in as a replacement for the ailing Andrea Petkovic and earned a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Camila Giorgi, AP reports.

The afternoon matches saw scoreboards go dark due to a long power outage that affected 200,000 customers in the area. But play went on despite the lack of electricity, which shut down the umpires' microphones, and left the players without light or hot water in their clubhouse.

Generators provided lighting when Shelby Rogers scored a 6-0, 2-6, 6-0 victory over crowd favourite Eugenie Bouchard.

“It was cool to see the support she has here and it's fun to see that much support for tennis,'' Rogers said. ''I knew what I was getting into so I was prepared for it. I hope that doesn't happen too often, but I know she's a mega superstar up here.''

The 20-year-old Bouchard, who had not played since reaching the Wimbledon final last month, struggled in the first set, hitting normally routine shots long or wide.

Bouchard rebounded in the second, hitting the crisp mix of shots that took her to at least the semifinals of the first three Grand Slam events this year. But nothing worked for her again in the third set.