California
Venus Williams scored a straight sets upset of 16th seed Veroninka Kudermetova at the ATP/WTA Cincinnati Open on Monday, bagging her first win over a top 20 player in four years. The 43-year-old American 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. I love this game, it’s what I do, Williams said in on-court remarks after her victory against the Russian world number 14. The last few years have been difficult in terms of injuries, Williams added. 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. Williams, a semi-finalist at Cincinnati in 2012, saw her match interrupted by rain before she completed her victory.
