6-2, 6-2 for Arango
Emiliana Arango dumped Venus Williams out in the first round of the Cincinnati Open on Friday in Mason, Ohio. The Colombian wrapped it up 6-2, 6-2 in straight sets, with barely a contest.
Arango, 25, had won just one WTA 1000 match this season before this one. Now she has two. She faced only one break point all match, and saved it.
Venus Williams, 46, had come into the draw on a wildcard. She made 40 unforced errors.
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Fourteen straight singles defeats
The numbers are grim. This latest exit makes it 14 singles losses on the spin for Venus Williams, a run that stretches back to July 2025. A seven-time Grand Slam champion, the American has spent the past few seasons drifting between wildcards and occasional comebacks.
She is not done with the event yet, though. Venus is due to play doubles with her sister Serena when that draw gets under way.
On the Colombian side, the emotion was clear to see. “When the draw came out and I saw it, I was like ‘oh my god.’ It is such an exciting chance to get. When I was little, I always saw her on TV, so to play against her is honestly crazy,” Arango said.
Her coach had given her one simple message. “He told me: I do not want to see you moving slowly, all I want is for your legs to be quick. I tried to focus on that, to put back as many balls as possible, and I think I did the job well.”
The rest of the first round
Australian Talia Gibson set up a second-round meeting with Aryna Sabalenka by coming from behind to beat Austrian Lilli Tagger 4-6, 6-1, 7-5. Trailing 3-0 in the deciding set, Gibson reeled off four games and broke her opponent four times in that set alone. It took two hours and 36 minutes.
Peyton Stearns, born in Cincinnati, saw off Britain’s Harriet Dart 6-1, 7-6 (6). She was the only American winner by 18:30 local time.
Also through were Oleksandra Oliynykova, Viktorija Golubic, Xinyu Wang, Xiyu Wang, Lucrezia Stefanini, Nikola Bartunkova, Sara Bejlek, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, Daria Snigur, Anna Blinkova and Tamara Korpatsch. Four matches were still to be completed, including those involving Sloane Stephens and Sofia Kenin.
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