Colombia’s Emiliana Arango outpaced Venus Williams on her way to a 6-2, 6-2 victory in first-round action at the Cincinnati Open on Friday in Mason, Ohio.
It marked just the second WTA 1000-level match win this year for Arango, and it came against a seven-time Grand Slam champion and one of the most famous players of her generation. Williams, 46, was in the main draw on a wild card.
“When the draw came out and I saw it, I was like, ‘Oh man.’ It’s so exciting to get this opportunity. When I was growing up, I always saw her on TV, so to get to play her is really crazy,” said Arango, 25.
“My coach told me, ‘I don’t want to see you moving slow; all I want to see is for your legs to go fast,'” she said. “I tried to focus on that, tried to get as many balls back as I could, and I think I did a good job of it.”
Arango saved the only break point she faced. Williams, meanwhile, committed 40 unforced errors en route to her 14th straight singles loss dating to July 2025.
Williams is slated to play doubles with her sister Serena when that draw gets underway.
Australia’s Talia Gibson set up a date with World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the second round when Gibson rallied to beat Austria’s Lilli Tagger 4-6, 6-1, 7-5. Gibson fell behind 3-0 in the third set but won four straight to flip the script; she broke Tagger’s serve four times in that set alone en route to a two-hour, 36-minute win.
Peyton Stearns, a Cincinnati native, started her tournament strong with a 6-1, 7-6 (6) defeat of Great Britain’s Harriet Dart.
As of 6:30 p.m. local time, she was the only American to have won her match. Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova swept Elvina Kalieva 6-4, 6-1, and Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic bounced Alycia Parks 6-2, 6-2.
China’s Xinyu Wang beat Belgium’s Hanne Vandewinkel 6-4, 6-3, while China’s Xiyu Wang, a qualifier, also advanced when opponent Maria Timofeeva of Uzbekistan retired down 6-0, 3-0.
Another retirement occurred in an all-Italian matchup. Lucrezia Stefanini moved on as Elisabetta Cocciaretto packed it in before the end of the first set due to an apparent injury.
Others who advanced Friday include the Czech Republic’s Nikola Bartunkova and Sara Bejlek, Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, Ukraine’s Daria Snigur, Russian Anna Blinkova and Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch. Four matches had yet to be completed, two of them featuring American Grand Slam champions Sloane Stephens and Sofia Kenin.
–Field Level Media
