Venus Williams uses big rallies to defeat top-20 opponent for first time in four years

Venus Williams just may be back.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion, 43, won a match against a top-20-ranked opponent for the first time in four years, defeating No. 16 Veronika Kudermetova on Monday in the opening round at the Cincinnati Open, 6-4, 7-5.

Williams improved her record to 3-5 this season, having entered the Western & Southern Open ranked No. 533 in the world, staving off the looming question of retirement less than a year after her sister, Serena, decided to call it quits.

“Stop tempting me,” Williams said after the match when asked during an on-court interview why she was still on a court when she could be anywhere in the world on a yacht.

“I love this game, it’s what I do, and the last few years have been difficult in terms of injuries, and I want to be able to be out here and be strong, and be myself, and that’s important to me. I’m trying to get there,” she added.

Williams had trailed 4-1 in both sets, but battled back each time, converting six of nine break points in the match.

“I just kept telling myself, ‘I just want to win this point — not the match, just one point,’” Williams said. “When you break things down like that, big problems become small problems. That’s how I did that.”

She had previously lost her last 10 matches against top-20 players, her last win coming in 2019 over then-No. 5 Kiki Bertens, also in Cincinnati.

Williams’ last Grand Slam championship came in 2008 when she reigned victorious at Wimbledon for the fifth time.

She qualified for a major final three times after that point, most recently in 2017 at Wimbledon.

Williams has not found much success this season, her best result coming in a Round of 16 finish at the ASB Classic in New Zealand, where she lost to Lin Zhu.

She will play the winner of Qinwen Zheng vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the next round.

— with AP