Venus Williams beats Camila Giorgi in marathon match to advance at Birmingham for first top-50 win since 2019

Venus Williams rolled back the years as she won a marathon match against Camila Giorgi in the first round in Birmingham.

The 43-year-old prevailed 7-6(5) 4-6 7-6(6) after three hours and 16 minutes to claim only her second win of the season.

It is Williams’ first top-50 win since late 2019.

“I thought I played really well today, and she played incredible,” said Williams in her on-court interview.

“So many moments I thought this match was over and she would hit a shot from out of nowhere. She pushed me to be better than what I thought I could be.

“I haven’t played a lot of matches and it’s great to come through.”

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams has hardly played this season due to injury and is ranked at No. 697 in the world.

However, she has not given any signals yet about following sister Serena into retirement.

She showed that she can still compete at a high level as she came through a rollercoaster match against world No. 48 Giorgi.

Williams took the first set in a tie-break despite a nasty-looking fall when she ran for a forehand.

Giorgi broke twice early in the second set and closed it out to level the match.

Williams opened up a 5-2 advantage in the deciding set but Giorgi hit back to force a tie-break.

Again it was Williams who had the better of the tie-break and she closed out a memorable win.

It was Williams’ third straight victory over Giorgi after also beating her at the 2015 Australian Open and 2018 US Open.

At the bett1open in Berlin there were wins for Petra Kvitova, Caroline Garcia and Donna Vekic.

Kvitova beat fellow Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-3 6-4 to record her first win in two months.

Garcia saw off German wild card Sabine Lisicki 7-6(2) 6-3 while Vekic won 6-3 6-2 against Varvara Gracheva.