Venus Williams struggled past the heat and Andrea Petkovic to set up a second round match with Petra Kvitova in Indian Wells.
The 38 year-old edged past Andrea Petkovic 6-4 0-6 6-3 to reach the second round as she struggled with the heat throughout the match.
Despite looking dehydrated and ill, Venus thrashed winners past the German in the deciding set to survive a big first round test.
As a result the American will now play Australian Open finalist Petra Kvitova on Saturday in the second round.
It was a fairly slow start from Venus who was playing her first match since Melbourne and was broken twice early on.
However some big-hitting and better serving saw the world number 36 take the last four games to seal the first set in 41 minutes.
Despite the boost, Venus looked very unwell and dehydrated as she failed to cope with the sizzling Californian heat during the day session.
The second set was proof of this as the American looked out of energy and ideas as Petkovic started to overpower her from the baseline.
Controlling the occasion and points better, Petkovic didn’t lose a single game in the second set as her energy powered her to forcing a deciding set.
Amazingly though, Venus’ adrenaline kicked in the final set despite a lack of happiness from her point of view. A shaky start from Petkovic gave the veteran the early break.
Despite being broken while serving for the match, the crowd helped Venus to break back and give her a remarkable win.
Although it wasn’t her best performance, Venus somehow gained a crucial win in 1 hour and 45 minutes to seal her place in the second round.
A meeting with Australian Open finalist Petra Kvitova now awaits Venus, who will need to play and feel much better than that on Saturday.
Mladenovic Sets Up Osaka Rematch
In other early results Kristina Mladenovic will play Naomi Osaka for the second time in three weeks after a 7-5 6-2 win over Saisai Zheng.
Breaking six times helped Mladenovic to a straight sets win and will look to beat the defending champion for a second time in a row after a crushing win in Dubai.
There were also wins for Madison Brengle, Misaki Doi and Yulia Putintseva as the women’s first rounds look to reach their conclusion by the end of Thursday’s play.
