Venus Williams is back to winning matches on native soil as the American produced a sensational win over Veronika Kudermetova at the 2023 Cincinnati Masters.
Before doing anything else, let's just give huge credit to Venus Williams for battling as if she was a 21-year-old hungry up-and-coming player and eventually recording her first win in the United States since beating Victoria Azarenka in Lexington in 2020. The veteran was against the wall multiple times in this match but never gave up, never allowed her opponent an easy point, and she was rewarded for it in the end.
Kudermetova is a Top 20-ranked player on the WTA Tour, and that's no joke. She hasn't played since Wimbledon and can produce these shocking performances at times but still, all the credit goes to Williams, who came to Cincinnati after a tricky baggage mix-up in Montreal, for never allowing her opponent to settle.
The opening set was one where Kudermetova jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. It became a 4-1 lead after that, but rather quickly, Williams started to find solutions. Her hitting is still top-notch, and while her movement isn't what it used to be, it's good enough.
She went on to win five games in a row to take the opening set 6-4. The match itself was stopped a few times due to rain, and that might have possibly messed up the rhythm of the Russian. It certainly did in the second set when the match was stopped at a time when she was completely controlling it.
She was up 5-1 in the second set with a rather clear journey ahead of her. Unfortunately, she had a player on the opposite side of the net that didn't care one bit about her plans. Williams pulled back one break and that immediately sounded alarms in the camp of Kudermetova.
A few games later, the score was 5-5, and two games later, it was 7-5 for Williams. Another huge comeback from the veteran. The final score was 6-4 7-5 and a big win for the American, who can possibly meet the world no. 1 Iga Swiatek in the third round if she also wins her next match, which will be against one of the qualifiers.
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