Venus silences critics by winning WTA Dubai Open

American tennis ace Venus Williams has silenced her critics who said she could never make a significant comeback at the age of 33 by winning the WTA Dubai Open on Saturday.

Williams avenged the defeat that Alise Cornet inflicted on her sister Serena in the semi-finals of the tournament by beating the Frenchwoman 6-3, 6-0 to earn her a first title in 16 months after entering the tournament with a wild card due to her position outside the top 40.

According to Sport24, with her sequence of five wins in this tournament, the elder Williams sister has remained ahead of sister Serena as the active player with the most WTA Tour wins (647 to Serena's 641) in her bid to continue till the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The face of the seven-time Grand Slam winner was afterwards wreathed with smiles, while Cornet twice broke into tears during the match, aware from an early stage that she was unlikely to find a way to halt one of the game's most formidable attacker two nights in a row, the report added.