Western & Southern Open: Venus Williams garnered her first Top 20 win in four years with a straight-sets upset of Veronika Kudermetova

Former World No.1 Venus Williams notched her first Top 20 win in four years with a 6-4, 7-5 upset of No.16 seed Veronika Kudermetova in the first round of the Western & Southern Open on Monday.

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams, currently ranked No.533, had not beaten a Top 20 player since this very event in 2019, when she upset Kiki Bertens. Following that win, Williams had lost her next ten matches against Top 20 opposition.

“Definitely satisfaction from today is [from] all the work that goes into just being here at all,” Williams said, after her win.

“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.”

“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,'” Williams said. “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.”

Another American Grand Slam champion posted a straight-sets win on Center Court on Monday to join Williams in the second round. Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, ousted Elisabetta Cocciaretto 7-5, 6-2 earlier in the day.