Venus Williams won her first tennis match since being sued by the estate of a Florida man who died after a car crash police say she caused.
The 10th-seeded Williams beat Elise Mertens 7-6 (7), 6-4 Monday in the first round at Wimbledon, a tournament the American has won five times.
Last week, Williams was sued by the estate of a Florida man who died 13 days after a car crash. The lawsuit came one day after Palm Beach Gardens police released a report saying Williams caused the June 9 crash.
A reporter asked Williams about it after her match.
“Venus, I saw that you wrote on your Facebook some very heartfelt words about the accident. Is there anything else that you just want to say about that?” the reporter asked.
“There are really no words to describe, like, how devastating. Yeah, I am completely speechless,” Williams said before tearing up and leaving the news conference. She reportedly returned minutes later to discuss her match.
On No. 1 Court, Williams had to wait through a 33-minute rain delay to win her opening match. She had two match points before the rain came. Play was stopped with Williams leading 5-3, 40-40 in the second set.
When play resumed, Mertens held serve to make it 5-4, but Williams served out the match.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Venus Williams was asked about events outside of #wimbledon today in her post-match press conference pic.twitter.com/ewnDywOmRy
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 3, 2017