AO 2017 (R1): Venus digs deep to access in the second round

The older sister of Williams continues to make history after a tough 7-6 7-5 win against Katerina Kozlova. Venus played just her second match of the year, after pulling out from the ASB Classic due to injury. It was noticeable the lack of performing in a tournament, as Williams had to find her best tennis to pass a very tricky first round opponent. She was one game away to lose the first set but, came back to take it in a tie-break under the Australian heat. 
"I'm a Floridian, so I'm pretty good with heat. But obviously, if it's going to be hot, I think with players, you can train in the heat the week before. This last week it was kind of cool, actually, a lot of the time. So it's definitely a wildcard, like, total wildcard." 

In the second set, The former world nº1 looked to keep her momentum by breaking her opponent´s serve and taking a 3-1 lead. Somehow, the Ukranian leveled the scoreboard at 3-3 all and looked quite strong to force a decider.  "Just from the warm-up it looked like she was just ready to go, hitting it solid. I really have to give her a lot of credit for playing a match that was not a lot of errors and just relentless. I guess when I walk out there I have to expect that from my opponents and not an easy first round, but a great first round to get through, for sure." 

It was not enough, as the 13th seed performed at her best to win the last 3 games of the set and close the contest in almost 2 hours of play.