Venus Williams still looking to return to form after first-round exit at Rogers Cup

Venus Williams got the start she wanted in her return to tennis action, but not the finish. After several months away from the court, Williams stormed out of the gate Tuesday in her first round match-up at the 2013 Rogers Cup, taking the first set (6-0) over Belgiums's Kirsten Flipkens, before eventually bending and then breaking in the final two sets (6-4, 6-2).

Williams, who is recovering from a back injury, has not played since a first round loss at the French Open in May.

"I wasn't really expecting to play that well in the first set," Williams said. "I just hadn't played a lot, really (only) very sporadically in the last few months. I definitely didn't probably make the make the best choices out there all the time but in general it was really fun to be back out and just get ready for next week."

Williams, 33, has seven Grand Slam championships under her belt, but has not been able to come through in Canada. In four appearances at this tournament she has never advanced past the second round. "I have somehow got to change my luck around here," Williams said with a smile. "I'm going to keep working on it, but you know I haven't been able to play here as often as I would have liked."

While her cold streak in Canada continued, Tuesday's match at the Rexall Centre allowed Williams to gauge her progress. At this point in her career, the process of coming back from injuries is nothing new. She hopes to return to form by getting in some more matches ahead of the U.S. Open which gets underway later this month.

"I feel like I'm on the threshold of building confidence," she said. "I think I have made like four comebacks in the last three years, so it's something I am getting used to now. Hopefully this is the last one for a long time. When you're coming back to the matches, you just have to take the positives learn from the mistakes and build on that and so I just look forward to building on it next week."

Williams confirmed she will be attending next week's Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, but will forgo the New Haven Open the following week. In her eyes, the key to getting back on track starts with her serve which still isn't at the level she wants it to be.

"I really just started serving a lot more in the last week, so I am not really 100% on the serve yet," said Williams, who finished with three aces. "This week I will definitely be practicing my serve a lot more and getting more confident in it and more comfortable serving out there. Definitely today (in) my service game, I didn't feel like myself. Usually I step up to the line and I really go for it a lot but I didn't really feel like I could do that today. I definitely think that made a difference in the match."