At the age of 42, Venus Williams isn’t about to give up her tennis racket and is proving she can still compete at the highest level. The seven-time Grand Slam winner came close to reaching the quarter-finals of the WTA 250 in Auckland but was unable to close out her match against Lin Zhu in time.

Venus Williams, defeated by Lin Zhu after leading 5-3 in the deciding set

Having reached the 1003rd place in the world ranking, Venus was defeated after two hours and 25 minutes of play by the much higher ranked Chinese (84 WTA), score 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.

A five-time Wimbledon champion and two-time US Open winner, Williams led 5-3 in the deciding set, but fatigue took its toll and Zhu made an impressive comeback.

Lin Zhu will meet in the quarterfinals of the New Zealand tournament with Coco Gauff (7 WTA), after the main favorite overcame Sofia Kenin (champion of the Australian Open 2020).

The ASB Classic (WTA Auckland) runs from January 2 to 8 on hard, is part of the WTA 250 category, offers a total of $259,303 in prize money, and is championed (as of 2020) by Serena Williams.