Former world no. 1 Venus Williams won the maiden WTA Elite Trophy tournament in Zhuhai, China on Sunday to regain her place in the top 10 of the Women's Tennis Association rankings.

The 35-year-old seven-time Grand Slam champion nipped Czech Republic's Karolína Plíšková, 7-5, 7-6 (8/6), "at a purpose-built venue" in Southern China to capture the crown and raise herself up to become the world's no. 7th from being 11th, as per Yahoo Sports.

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It is the first time since April 2011 that the American has been able to break through the top 10 of the rankings following her struggle with an auto-immune disease called Sjogren's Syndrome.

The report also mentioned that Williams became "the oldest top-10 player in 20 years" after her feat.

"Seven weeks here in Asia and now I feel like it's my home!" the older sister of world no. 1 Serene Williams exclaimed after the match, as reported by Xinhuanet. "I'm so excited to win the first trophy in Zhuhai. All the players felt so welcome here and we appreciated all of the enthusiasm. To see every seat filled for every match, that's all the players and tournament hope for."

23-year-old Plíšková put up a good fight, going up 4-2 in the second set before Williams rallied to come from behind, executing successive forehand winners during crunch time, and win the match, according to Daily Mail Online.

"Even if I didn't make it today, it was a great week," said the current world no. 11. "Venus played an unbelievable match today. But I'm proud of how I played this week and hopefully we'll have more matches like this."

Plíšková was the former world no. 7 and now she has switched places with Williams in the rankings.

The Zhuhai tournament, which is Williams' 48th WTA win, replaced the former WTA Tournament of Champions and is set to be hosted by the Chinese City up until 2019.

Tagstennis, Tennis 2015, Tennis news 2015, Women's Tennis Assiciation, womens tennis, womens tennis news, Women's Tennis news 2015, Venus Williams, Karolina Pliskova, WTA Elite Trophy, WTA Elite Trophy 2015