Venus Williams of the United States advanced to round two of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, after her 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 win over German Andrea Petkovic in round one action.
"I haven’t played in forever, so that was challenging in itself, to get back into competition," said Venus post-match. “It was good to be back here and have the crowd behind me.”
Venus advances to face world number three Petra Kvitova in the second round. Kvitova leads the head-to-head series 4-2, with Venus taking the most recent meeting in Flushing Meadows in the quarterfinals of the 2017 U.S. Open.
The news was not so good for another American at Indian Wells, as current world number 89 Taylor Townsend was defeated by Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure, 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-2.
Bonaventure, currently ranked 144th in the world, next meets the number 28 seed, Donna Vekic of Croatia in round two. The two last met in 2018 in Hungary with Bonaventure taking the 6-4, 6-1 victory.
