At 43, Venus Williams is proving she still has the weapons to compete at the highest level. The legendary American athlete reached the third round of the WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati after defeating Russian Veronika Kudermetova.

Venus Williams beat Veronika Kudermetova at the WTA in Cincinnati

Wildcard beneficiary Venus beat the Russian, ranked 16th in the world, in two sets, 6-4, 7-5.

The multiple Grand Slam winner, who is ranked 533 in the WTA rankings (7 singles, 14 doubles and 2 mixed doubles), led 4-1 in the first set and 5-1 in the second, but each time came back impressively to win after two hours of play. .

Know:

• In the next round in Cincinnati, Venus Williams will meet the winner of the match between Qinwen Zheng (24 WTA) and Oleksandra Sasnovich (74 WTA, who is leaving the qualification).

• In 2023, Venus Williams had three wins (against Katy Volynets, Kamila Giorgi and Veronika Kudermetova) and five losses (against Lin Zhu, Celine Naef, Jelena Ostapenko, Elina Svitolina and Madison Keys).

The result of the match between Venus Williams and Veronika Kudermetova

>> Venus Williams and the problems of the 43-year-old WTA player: “I’ve been calling you for three days”

>> Venus Williams and how old she wants to be to play tennis: ‘Nobody’s done it before’