Until her appearance at a tournament in Washington, D.C., this month, it would have been fair to presume that Venus Williams had slipped quietly into retirement.
At 45, Venus Williams Still Can’t Quit Tennis
She was 45 with nothing left to prove. Her seven major singles titles, four Olympic gold medals, and more than $40 million in career earnings were more than enough to call it a day after more than three decades as a pro. Even her younger sister, Serena, had hung up her Swarovski-crystal-studded sneakers three years earlier.
Yet there she was in D.C., grinding out a first-round victory over world No. 35 Peyton Stearns, after 16 months away from the courts and nearly two years since her last win. The result made Williams the oldest player to win a tour-level singles match since 47-year-old Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon in 2004.
“It’s hard to describe how difficult it is to play a first match after so much time off,” Williams said after her first competitive outing since March 2024.
Williams went on to lose in the second round, but that won’t slow the comeback. This week, she received a wild card to play the revamped U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament alongside Reilly Opelka, the 6-foot-11 American with a monster serve. Other pairs in the field include men’s No. 1 Jannik Sinner playing with women’s No. 11 Emma Navarro, and Carlos Alcaraz lining up alongside 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu.
Though Williams joked that her motivation to return was retaining her eligibility for WTA health insurance, the world No. 571 is on a mission to earn a wild card berth for the U.S. Open singles tournament, too. That’s why she is set to follow D.C. with a trip to the Cincinnati Open in August.
“There are no limits for excellence,” Williams said. “It’s all about what’s in your head.”
Williams hasn’t played more than 10 singles matches in a season since 2021. And the last time she managed to string together back-to-back victories at any tournament was Cincinnati in 2019.
Williams lost in the first round of the 2023 U.S. Open to Greet Minnen.
None of that has dissuaded her. Nor has a series of health concerns linked to her 2011 diagnosis with Sjögren’s syndrome, an incurable autoimmune disease, which causes fatigue and chronic pain, among other symptoms. Williams’s love of the game is enough to keep her on the road—especially after returning to Wimbledon as a tourist this summer.
“It was so beautiful and exciting, and I remembered all the times that I had,” she said. “And of course the adrenaline.”
Williams is a long way from recapturing that on Centre Court, where she racked up five singles titles in eight years. For now, she’ll settle for the rush she gets from any sign of progress.
“There is no doubt I can play tennis, but obviously coming back to play matches, it takes time to get in the swing of things,” she said. “I definitely feel I’ll play well. I’m still the same player.”
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