Williams’ Birmingham Run Ended By Ostapenko

Venus Williams’ short but unexpected run at the Birmingham Classic came to an end with defeat by second seed Jelena Ostapenko in a three-set thriller.

The 43-year-old American fought tenaciously but lost 6-3 5-7 6-3 in the last 16 at the Wimbledon warm-up event.

“Venus is an idol for a lot of people, it was very special,” said Ostapenko.

Williams will take positives from her performance and was handed a Wimbledon wildcard earlier this week.

“Venus is a great player and it’s an honour to share a court with her, she’s a really dangerous player on grass. It was hard but I managed it, I was fighting until the last point,” said Ostapenko.

“It’s great to play against players like Venus, she’s a great champion – that hasn’t gone anywhere, it will always be with her.”

Williams battled well despite injury troubles, securing a hard-fought break in the fifth game, but the Latvian won four games in succession to take the opening set.

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Williams’ victory on Tuesday over Italy’s Camila Giorgi was only her second singles win in almost two years after lengthy injury lay-offs.

As was the case against Giorgi, the five-time Wimbledon champion had to take a medical timeout – this time leaving the court four games into the second set.

The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion wore strapping on her right knee throughout and did not look to be moving well on her return to the court.

BBC Sports