 Venus Williams was delighted to beat a top 20 player for the first time in four years at the age of 43 – with a stunning victory over Veronika Kudermetova. The American tennis legend, ranked No.533, recorded a 6-3 7-5 win against the Russian world No.16 in a round-of-64 clash at the Cincinnati Masters. In both sets, Williams found herself 4-1 down but managed to roll back the years and battle back. Williams is gearing up for the US Open, which begins on August 28, where the two-time Flushing Meadows champion is set to receive a wildcard. The seven-time Grand Slam winner's victory over Kudermetova is a big boost before the last major tournament of the year in New York and Williams was over the moon with her straight-sets win. When it was put to her that she could be enjoying retirement on a yacht rather than continuing to battle it out on the WTA Tour, Williams joked: 'Where would the yacht be? Stop tempting me! 'I love this game, it's what I do and the last few years have been difficult in terms of injuries. 'I want to be able to come out here, be strong and be myself. That's important to me and I'm trying to get there. [It] it satisfying, to be able to get a win with very little time to prepare. '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' – definitely some big holes today that I usually don't play from… But that's tennis. That's what's so exciting.' Williams' win over Kudermetova ended a run of three straight singles defeats to Jelena Ostapenko, Elina Svitolina and Madison Keys respectively. Williams' loss to Svitolina came in the first round of Wimbledon last month in which she screamed in agony and appeared to twist her knee after going down. But Willia){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Venus Williams was delighted to beat a top 20 player for the first time in four years at the age of 43 – with a stunning victory over Veronika Kudermetova.
The American tennis legend, ranked No.533, recorded a 6-3 7-5 win against the Russian world No.16 in a round-of-64 clash at the Cincinnati Masters.
In both sets, Williams found herself 4-1 down but managed to roll back the years and battle back.
Williams is gearing up for the US Open, which begins on August 28, where the two-time Flushing Meadows champion is set to receive a wildcard.