Dutch Open: Venus loses first match in five months, Naef advances to last 16

Swiss wildcard Celine Naef moved into the last 16 of the Dutch Open by winning against American wildcard Venus Williams 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 at the Autotron Rosmalen in’s-Hertogenbosch on Tuesday.

Venus’s last match on tour was in January at the Auckland Open, losing to Lin Zhu 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Now ranked 696 in the world, it was observed that 17-year-old Naef was born on exactly the same day that Venus beat Daniela Hantuchova in the third round of Wimbledon in 2005.

I'm sure someone has noted this already somewhere on this bird app, but Venus' opponent today @LibemaOpen, 17-yo Celine Naef 🇨🇭, was born on the day Venus won this match: https://t.co/mK6QShsVXx

— Victoria Chiesa (@vrcsports) June 13, 2023

Even the presence of Venus’s biggest fan, little sister Serena, wasn’t enough to turn the match in her favour.

Naef, ranked No 202, will face No 8 seed Catherine McNally next.

Venus' number 1 fan 🤩@serenawilliams | #LibemaOpen pic.twitter.com/RN8mednO7n

— wta (@WTA) June 13, 2023

‘s-Hertogenbosch WTA 250, other 32 results (Autotron Rosmalen, grass, USD 259.303, most recent results first):

• Sachia Vickery vs. Priscilla Hon
• Catherine McNally beat Katie Volynets: 6-2, 6-1
• Kimberly Birrell beat Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove (WC): 6-1, 6-4
• Aliaksandra Sasnovich (7) beat Lucrezia Stefanini: 6-0, 6-3
• Ashlyn Krueger beat Rebecca Peterson: 6-1, 6-2
• Bianca Andreescu (6) beat Zeynep Sonmez (Q): 6-4, 6-4
• Polina Kudermetova beat Yue Yuan: 6-4, 6-3
• Ekaterina Alexandrova (4) beat Evgeniya Rodina: 6-3, 6-4
• Viktoria Hruncakova beat Susan Bandecchi (Q): 6-4, 6-2
• Emina Bektas (Q) beat Dalma Galfi: 7-5, 7-6 (1)
• Liudmila Samsonova (2) beat Lena Papadakis (Q): 7-5, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3)
• Carol Zhao (Q) beat Ysaline Bonaventure: 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4)
• Victoria Azarenka (3) beat Natalija Stevanovic (Q): 7-6 (5), 6-3
• Greet Minnen beat Jessika Ponchet: 7-5, 4-6, 6-2
• Veronika Kudermetova (1) beat Alison Riske-Amritraj: 6-3, 3-0 ret.