'That's tennis, that's what's so exciting": Venus Williams' comeback win thrills on rain-shortened Monday in Cincinnati

WATCH: Venus Williams defeats Veronika Kudermetova in the 2023 Western and Southern Open first round

CINCINNATI, Ohio—For tennis fans milling around on Monday morning here in the suburbs of southwest Ohio, the sight of Venus Williams materializing out of the rainy mist on a distant practice court came as something of a shock.

“Is that really her?” a girl asked her older sister. She had seen a sign outside the court with Williams’ name and face on it, but she couldn’t quite believe that the real thing was in front of her eyes.

Yes, that was the 43-year-old, seven-time major champion going through a footwork drill in her workout clothes. Venus didn’t look all that different than she had in her 20s prime, and she was all business, in an upbeat way, as she prepared for her first-round match against No. 16 seed Veronika Kudermetova.

You can’t skip any steps when you’ve had as many injuries as she’s had recently, and when you’re coming back from a bad fall on Centre Court a little more than a month ago.

“I did my best to be here as soon as possible in the best form possible I could bring in that amount of time,” she said.

“Right after, I went straight back to rehab. I felt like Amy Winehouse,” she added with a laugh. “I don’t want to go.”

While Williams took her practice and her rehab seriously, she appeared for her match on Monday in a playful, Barbie-style outfit: A pink dress with a top-knot dyed to match, and red lipstick. Even more promising, she didn’t have any tape or wrapping on her body for a change.

“I’m just always happy to be back in Cincinnati,” Williams said later. “It’s like my home away from home.”

Once the match began, Venus didn’t have much fun at first. She was broken in the opening game, and broken again at 1-3, when she made three quick errors. As she walked to the sideline with her head down, silence reigned in Center Court.

But longtime Venus watchers have learned to live with slow starts, and their patience was rewarded again. At 1-4, she came to life and began to swing with more conviction. At 2-4, she held with a running forehand winner and celebrated with a rare fist-pump. When she closed out the set 6-4, she gave us three more

In the second set, Kudermetova rediscovered her range and confidence, and built an even bigger lead: 5-1, with two set points. But again, Venus got off the mat. It was Williams, 17 years Kudermetova’s senior, who had more punch in her serve and ground strokes. She won five straight games over the increasingly error-prone Russian, who double-faulted at match point.

“I think I’m at a better level than I started the year, to be honest,” Williams, who earned her first win over a Top 20 opponent in four years, said. “My serve is better. Second serve was better. It’s really about playing matches. You cannot replicate it.

“So that’s really where I am right now. I’m fine game-wise, but playing matches is a different ball game.”

Venus said Serena texted her after the match and “had a lot of encouraging words to say.

"She believes in me and she knows what I have inside of me," she added.

Venus obviously has more tennis left inside of her. Is her comeback, at 43, without her sister by her side, taking off? Whatever happens, results-wise, she’s still proving that the sport can be an inexhaustible source of enjoyment, to the person willing to work for it.

“It was definitely different,” she said of the two comebacks she had to pull off today. “But that’s tennis. That’s what’s so exciting.”