Venus Williams defeated Camila Giorgi at the start of the WTA 250 Rothesay Birmingham Classic

Women’s tennis legend Venus Williams started her participation at the grass-court tournament WTA 250 Rothesay Birmingham Classic with a victory. The 43-year-old American, who is former world’s No 1 and has won seven Grand Slam title, won by 2-1 (7:6, 4:6, 7:6) against Camila Giorgi (Italy). The match lasted more than three hours, and for Venus Williams it is the first victory over a Top 50 tennis player in almost four years.

Venus Williams has been sidelined for nearly six months after suffering a thigh injury at the tournament in Auckland, New Zealand earlier this year. Last week, the American returned to the court at the tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, but lost at the start to 17-year-old Celine Naef (Switzerland).

“Camila Giorgi made me play better than I thought I could at the moment. It’s great for me because I haven’t played many matches like that lately”, said Venus Williams after the win.

In the next round, she will face the winner between the 2nd-seeded Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) and Linda Noskova (Czech Republic).

In other more interesting matches of the first round, 18-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova (Czech Republic) won by 2-0 (6:2, 6:0) against Elina Svitolina (Ukraine), and 3rd-seeded Magda Linette (Poland) defeated Jasmine Paolini (Italy) by 2-1 (3:6, 7:5 6:4).