Venus Williams upsets Kudermetova in Cincinnati as Swiatek blasts scheduling

CINCINNATI — Venus Williams scored a straight sets upset of 16th seed Veroninka Kudermetova at the ATP/WTA Cincinnati Open on Monday, bagging her first win over a top 20 player in four years.

The 43-year-old American veteran, who was granted a wild card into this week’s tournament, rallied superbly to polish off Kudermetova 6-4, 7-5.

The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, whose career has spanned four different decades, showed great heart to recover from 4-1 down in the opening set before overturning a 5-1 deficit in the second to seal victory.

“I love this game, it’s what I do,” Williams said in on-court remarks after her victory against the Russian World No. 14.

“The last few years have been difficult in terms of injuries,” Williams added. 

“I want to be able to be out here and be strong, and be myself and that’s important to me, and I’m trying to get there.”

Williams, a semifinalist at Cincinnati in 2012, saw her match interrupted by rain before she completed her victory. 

In other women’s matches on Monday, 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens marked her 12th appearance with a 7-5, 6-2 defeat of Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

“This [summer] series so far has been tough. D.C., there was rain. Last week, Montreal was rain. This week again, rain,” Stephens said.

In the men’s draw, Felix Auger-Aliassime won a battle of injury comeback competitors, keeping former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini winless on the Tour since March with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

Auger-Aliassime, seeded 12th, missed his home Masters last week in Toronto with his injury recovery not yet complete.

Victory snapped a five-match loss streak stretching to the week before Roland Garros in May.

Finn Emil Ruusuvuori beat Corentin Moutet 6-4, 6-2. 

Top seed Carlos Alcaraz will open on Wednesday after a bye against Jordan Thompson, who put out 2013 finalist John Isner 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/2). 

Meanwhile, World No. 1 Iga Swiatek on Monday joined Elena Rybakina in blasting late-night scheduling which wrecked the closing days of last week’s Montreal Masters.

The four-time Grand Slam winner, who will chase her fifth title of the season this week in Cincinnati, said the WTA is taking little account of the physical needs of players when rain-delayed matches stretch into the early hours.

“Maybe we should focus more on what is healthy for players because we have to compete every week,” the top-seeded Swiatek said as she awaited her second-round start here after a bye.

“The Tour is so intense with travel that it would be nice in the future to focus on players — especially next year when there will be more and more mandatory tournaments and longer tournaments.”

The scheduling ordeal for last year’s Wimbledon winner Rybakina began with a Friday night Montreal quarterfinal against Daria Kasatkina which did not end until aronud 3am local time on Saturday.

Having won that encounter, the Kazakh had nothing left for a later Saturday semi, which she lost in three sets to Liudmila Samsonova. 

Samsonova, meanwhile, was left having to play her semifinal and the final on the same day on Sunday due to weather disruption.

Rybakina complained afterwards about the physical demands of the scenario, with Swiatek backing her colleague to the hilt.

“During the clay season, in Rome and Madrid, I played four matches that finished close to or after midnight,” Swiatek said.

“I understand we have to adjust to broadcasters and everything, but I also asked the WTA for some data to see if people are watching matches that start past 10pm. I didn’t get anything.”

Samsonova went on to lose the Sunday final to Jessica Pegula in 49 minutes.

Rybakina called WTA leadership “a bit weak now”, adding: “Hopefully something is going to change because this year [there were] many [scheduling] situations which I cannot really understand.”