Ashleigh Barty faces a tough task against a resurgent Venus Williams on the American's home soil for a place in the Cincinnati Open third round.
Australia's Barty was a first-round winner over world No.65 Varvara Lepchenko at the US Open lead-up event on Tuesday.
Qualifier Barty, ranked 48th in the world, closed out the 6-4 6-4 win against her American opponent in one hour and 24 minutes, converting 79 per cent of points on her first serve.
Ninth-seed Williams progressed to the second round by seeing off fellow American Alison Riske 6-2 6-0.
Williams, 37, would be the biggest scalp of Barty's career.
She has never beaten anyone ranked as high as the world No.9, who reached the Wimbledon final last month to improve her ranking from 31 at the end of last year.
But the 21-year-old might gain confidence from beating Williams' Wimbledon conqueror, Garbine Muguruza - then ranked 14th - in June.
But Williams, who's coming off a round-of-16 elimination at the Rogers Cup in Toronto last week, is determined not to disappoint home fans.
"I mean, here is an opportunity for me to play at home," said Williams, who will face Barty on Wednesday.
"There used to be a ton of tournaments in the States and now there isn't.
"So now, like, every time that I play in the States, it's like I don't take it for granted. Let's put it that way."
Second-seeded Simona Halep and seventh-seeded Johanna Konta became the first players to reach the third round Cincinnati.
Halep dispatched qualifier Taylor Townsend 6-4 6-1, while Wimbledon semi-finalist Konta beat Kiki Bertens 6-3 6-3.
The other Australian woman in the singles draw at Cincinnati, Daria Gavrilova, won her first-round match on Monday against Kristina Mladenovic.
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