Venus Williams on Monday scored a straight sets upset of 16th seed Veroninka Kudermetova at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, bagging her first win over a top 20 player in four years.
The 43-year-old US veteran, who was granted a wild card into this week’s tournament, rallied superbly to polish off Kudermetova 6-4, 7-5.
The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, whose career has spanned four different decades, showed great heart to recover from 4-1 down in the opening set, before overturning a 5-1 deficit in the second to seal victory.
Photo: AFP
“I love this game, it’s what I do,” Williams said on court after her victory against the Russian world No. 14.
“The last few years have been difficult in terms of injuries,” she said. “I want to be able to be out here and be strong, and be myself and that’s important to me, and I’m trying to get there.”
In other women’s singles matches, 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens marked her 12th appearance with a 7-5, 6-2 defeat of Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
In the men’s draw, Felix Auger-Aliassime won a battle of injury comeback competitors, keeping former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini winless on the Tour since March with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory.
Auger-Aliassime, seeded 12th, missed his home Masters last week in Toronto as he had not yet fully recovered from his injury.
He snapped a five-match loss streak stretching to the week before Roland Garros in May.
Finn Emil Ruusuvuori beat Corentin Moutet 6-4, 6-2.
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