Venus Stuns At Age 43, Ousts Seed Kudermetova, Auger-Aliassime Beats Berrettini At Rainy Cincinnati Masters

Before the rains came, Venus Williams was the story of Day 2 at the Cincinnati Masters.

The 43-year-old legend conjured up a huge upset stunning No. 16 seed Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 7-5. It was Venus’s first tour win since June and her first win over any Top 20 player since upended Kiki Bertens four years ago at Cincinnati in 2019.

“Definitely satisfaction from today is all the work that goes into just being here at all,” Williams said to the WTA.

“I did my best to be here as soon as possible in the best form possible I could bring in that amount of time. So that makes it satisfying, to be able to get a win with very little time to prepare.”

Kudermetova actually led 4-1 in both sets, and held set points in the second set.

Anastasia Potapova of Russia won a tight one over 18-year-old Swiss teen Celine Naef 1-6, 6-4, 7-5. Sloane Stephens topped (Elisabetta Cocciaretto 7-5, 6-2 and Jasmine Paolini rolled past the Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-1.

In the men’s draw, Felix Auger-Aliassime snapped a 5-match losing streak besting Matteo Berrettini from a set down 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Auger Aliassime, ranked 14th, tallied nine aces, donated six doubles and lost just 9 points on first serve.

“It’s a big win. It’s been a tough year, dealing with new things,” said Auger-Aliassime to the ATP. “Every win that I get, I’m happy, from now on. Of course the tournament has just started and I want to go further. I still have high ambitions. I never doubted myself.

“There’s comments right and left, but at the end of the day I know my tennis didn’t leave me. I know I can still play great tennis and I’ve proved it today again. So I’m going to try to keep going that way and it’s a positive start. Let’s try to keep this rolling.”

Elsewhere, Dusan Lajovic sent out Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 6-4. Nicolas Jarry of Chile defeated Roman Safiullin 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland overcame France’s Corentin Moutet 6-4, 6-2. And
Jordan Thompson dismissed former finalist John Isner in two breakers 7-6(7-5), 7-6(7-2).

Thompson will now face Carlos Alcaraz Tuesday night.

Rains hit early in the day before returning in the evening. Play was finally called at 10pm.

TUESDAY CINCINNATI MASTERS SCHEDULE
CENTER COURT
Starting At: 11:00 am
ATP Jiri LEHECKA (CZE) vs Taylor FRITZ (USA) [9]
Not Before 12:30 pm
ATP Sebastian KORDA (USA) vs Borna CORIC (CRO) [15] TBF 6/7(5) 3/4
ATP Alexander ZVEREV (GER) [16] vs Grigor DIMITROV (BUL)
Not Before 3:00 PM
WTA Ons Jabeur (TUN) [5] vs Anhelina Kalinina (UKR)

Not Before 7:00 PM
WTA Sloane Stephens (USA) vs Caroline Garcia (FRA) [6]

Not Before 8:30 pm
ATP Carlos ALCARAZ (ESP) [1] vs [Q] Jordan THOMPSON (AUS)

GRANDSTAND
Starting At: 11:00 am
WTA Petra Kvitova (CZE) [9] vs Anna Blinkova
WTA Victoria Azarenka vs Barbora Krejcikova (CZE) [11]
WTA Karolina Muchova (CZE) vs Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA) [12]
ATP Emil RUUSUVUORI (FIN) vs Andrey RUBLEV [7]

Not Before 7:00 pm
ATP Adrian MANNARINO (FRA) vs Felix AUGER-ALIASSIME (CAN) [12]

Not Before 8:30 PM
WTA Madison Keys (USA) [15] vs Elise Mertens (BEL)

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