Venus Williams came back in quite an impressive fashion after winning her first set since January 2023 season, but in the end, she had to swallow defeat.
The US veteran was supposed to return to competition earlier this season during his hard-court season in Australia, but he suffered an injury that made it impossible for him to play tennis for some time. He announced his return to action recently and it is clear he will compete in the 2023 Libema Open, ‘s-Hertogenbosch. He also received a wildcard to play in the Birmingham Classic.
The 42-year-old will also be traveling to London for Wimbledon but sadly won’t be playing any doubles after she retired from the event after her younger sister Serena Williams retired from tennis.
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The singles still looked pretty good for the five-time Wimbledon winner as she played a pretty solid game, but in the end, she ran out of energy towards the end.
In the first round of the Libema Open, the tennis player who has won seven Grand Slam singles titles faced Swiss tennis player, Celine Naef, who emerged victorious from the match 3-6, 7-6, 6-2.
A tennis player who is only 17 years old, Naef is a clay-court specialist and is not familiar with playing on grass-court. This was evident in that match after he didn’t really take advantage of his chances at the start of the game even though there weren’t many. For example, when the American tennis player saved both of the break point opportunities she faced and used the only break point she created to win the first set.
Entering the second set, Naef seemed to be starting to find a better performance after he was able to take the second set to the tiebreak. Even in that round he appeared dominant by snatching a 7/1 victory.
The third set proved to be a stumbling block for Williams, who simply couldn’t keep up with an opponent much younger than herself.
Naef’s hard work led to a second round match against eighth seed and another American, Catherine McNally, who crushed compatriot Katie Volynets 6-2, 6-1.
In other actions, US tennis player, Sachia Vickery fared more fortunately after she was able to defeat Australian tennis player, Priscilla Hon with 6-3, 6-0 and booked a second round match of Libema Open against compatriot, Emina Bektas who eliminated Hungarian nationality, Dalma Galfi with 7-5, 7-6.
Seventh seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich also advanced to the second round thanks to a 6-0, 6-3 win over Italian nationality Lucrezia Stefanini and will next face Belgian national tennis player Greet Minnen.
