Brit overcomes seven-time grand slam champion 7-5, 7-5
25-year-old secures first victory since January
In her first training session at the ATX Open in Austin last month, weeks after injury put an end to her Australian Open, Francesca Jones found herself in an unusual, delightful situation. Her training partner across the net was none other than Venus Williams, the most successful active female tennis player.
Being able to train with such a legendary player was a dream itself, but as of Thursday afternoon Jones can now say that she has also defeated one of the great legends of the game as she closed out a 7-5, 7-5 win over the 45-year-old seven-time grand slam champion in the first round of the Miami Open. The victory marks Jones’s first WTA 1000 match win in her career, breaking a four-match losing streak.
This was an intense battle that Williams, a three-time Miami Open champion between 1998 and 2001, could have won. It took two tight, frantic sets for Jones to find a way through. The 25-year-old showed her mental toughness by recovering to win the final three games of both sets after trailing 4-5 on serve each time. Jones’s victory has afforded her a match-up with one of the best and most in-form hard-court players in the world as she faces the fifth seed, Jessica Pegula, in the second round.
