Venus Williams: I felt like I basically had to survive

The American tennis veteran Venus Williams did not hint for the end of her career after she was eliminated in the second round of the WTA 250 hard court tennis tournament in Auckland (New Zealand) with a prize fund of 259,303 USD.

The 2015 champion lost to Chinese player Zhu Lin by 1-2 (6:3, 2:6, 5:7) in her sixth appearance at the Auckland event.

“I definitely didn’t perform great. I’ve played a lot of matches in my life and there have been breaks, but against Zhu Lin it was like two separate matches”, commented Venus Williams.

The match lasted a total of nearly 7 hours amid interruptions due to rain and was played on an indoor court.

“It was very difficult outdoors. It was rainy, windy. We played tennis, but I felt like I mainly had to survive more than play tennis. Indoors, the conditions were completely different”, explained the 42-year-old Venus Williams.