On comeback, Venus Williams fades against teenager Celine Naef

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US Venus Williams attempts to return the ball to Switzerland's Celine Naef during their women's singles match on day two of the Libema Open tennis tournament in Rosmalen on June 13, 2023

US Venus Williams makes an attempt to return the ball to Switzerland’s Celine Naef throughout their ladies’s singles match on day two of the Libema Open tennis match in Rosmalen on June 13, 2023. (Photograph by Sander Koning / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT

Venus Williams, taking part in her first match since early January, went down 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 to Celine Naef within the first spherical in ‘s-Hertogenbosch within the Netherlands on Tuesday.

With sister Serena, who retired final 12 months, within the crowd, Venus Williams, who turns 43 on Saturday, began strongly, however she pale as Naef, a 17-year previous Swiss ranked 202 on the planet, took her first tour victory in two hours, 18 minutes.

“I can not consider I had the prospect to play in opposition to Venus,” stated Naef, who was born on June 25, 2005, as Williams was on her strategy to her third Wimbledon title. “She’s an incredible participant and actually a task mannequin for anybody.”

Williams, ranked 696, was a wild card entry and was competing within the Netherlands for the primary time in her profession. It was her first singles match on grass since Wimbledon in 2021.

She final performed on any floor in Auckland in January the place she misplaced her second match to Zhu Lin of China, sustaining a hamstring harm that compelled her to withdraw from the Australian Open.

On Tuesday, Williams broke within the eighth recreation on her strategy to taking the primary set.

She then broke within the fifth recreation of the second. However Naef broke again and received the tie-break earlier than working away with the match, her first in the primary draw at a WTA match.

“For me, it was the largest stage I ever performed,” she stated on courtroom on the end. “It was unbelievable and superb to play in entrance of such an enormous crowd. I used to be very nervous, perhaps you may see, however I attempted to maintain going and take a look at my greatest.”

Within the subsequent spherical, the Swiss will face eighth seed Caty McNally who eased previous fellow American Katie Volynets 6-2, 6-1 in 65 minutes.

Fourth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova began her title defence with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Evgeniya Rodina.

No.6 seed Bianca Andreescu beat Turkish qualifier Zeynep Sonmez, who was additionally making her WTA main-draw debut, 6-4, 6-4.

Veronika Kudermetova is prime seed in a discipline that additionally contains Victoria Azarenka.

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