Former World No.1 Venus Williams bagged her first Top 20 win in four years with a straight set 6-4, 7-5 upset of No.16 seed Veronika Kudermetova in the first round of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati.
Williams, the seven-time Grand Slam champion, had not beaten a Top 20 player since this event in 2019 when she overcame Kiki Bertens. Following that victory, Williams went on to lose her next eleven matches against Top 20 opponents.
However, the 43-year-old made her mark in Cincinnati once more, defeating Kudermetova in little under two hours of play, despite two rain delays.
"Definitely satisfaction from today is [from] all the work that goes into just being here at all," WTA quoted Williams as saying after her victory.
"I did my best to be here as soon as possible in the best form possible I could bring in that amount of time. So that makes it satisfying, to be able to get a win with very little time to prepare," she added.
On Monday, Kudermetova led both the first and second sets 4-1. In fact, the World No.16 had two set points in the second set to tie the match at one set apiece, one at 5-2 and another at 5-3.
But Williams battled back on both occasions to win in straight sets, her first victory on tour since beating Camila Giorgi in the first round of the Birmingham Open in June.
Kudermetova recorded 16 winners to Williams' nine in their first match, although Kudermetova's 33 unforced errors were more than twice Williams' 15. Williams won by converting six of her nine break points.
"I think at some point when you're down a double break, you start to think, 'Well, I at least want to just hold serve for the rest of this set'. Simple thoughts like that. Then you get a little bit closer. You're like, 'Okay, maybe I just want to win another point,' Williams said.
"Definitely some big holes today that I usually don't play from. ... But that's tennis. That's what's so exciting," said the American.
Elsewhere, Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, ousted Elisabetta Cocciaretto 7-5, 6-2 earlier in the day.
Stephens rallied from 5-2 down in the opening set to defeat No.30 seed Cocciaretto of Italy and advance to the second round against the defending champion, No.6 seed Caroline Garcia of France. Garcia has a 4-2 advantage in their head-to-head matchup.
"Super excited. Obviously I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, so I'm just going to go out and play my best and compete well and hard, and play my game," Stephens said, looking ahead to her upcoming meeting with Garcia.
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