How 'roster construction' impacts Ryder Cup bubble
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an hour ago
- Yahoo
Sports Fans Celebrating Tennis Legend Venus Williams On Tuesday
Sports Fans Celebrating Tennis Legend Venus Williams On Tuesday originally appeared on The Spun. Venus Williams announced this month that she'd compete in the DC Open. The 45-year-old tennis star hasn't competed in a tournament in over a year. Williams kicked off her run at the DC Open with an impressive doubles victory. She teamed up with fellow American tennis star Hailey Baptiste to take down Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue, 6-3, 6-1. "It's just nice to be able to play. Where I am at this year is so much different where I was at last year. It's night and day, being able to be here and prepare for the tournament as opposed to preparing for surgery a year ago," Williams said earlier this month. "At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if your health is not there. So, it definitely put it in perspective for me and maybe made it easier to make the decision to maybe come back out here and maybe play even freer." Just in case a doubles victory wasn't enough to validate Williams' decision to return to competition, she took down Peyton Stearns in a singles match this Tuesday night, 6-3, 6-4. Stearns, the No. 35 ranked player in the world, simply no answer for Williams' power on the hard court. Immediately after Williams upset Stearns on Tuesday, fans showed their support for the seven-time Grand Slam champion. "Venus Williams….the woman that you are," one fan wrote on X. "It's definitely a pleasure to watch Venus Williams play tennis, seriously," a second fan commented. "Venus Williams displaying some incredible tennis tonight. First WTA match in 16 months, 45 years old, and slamming 121mph aces like it's just a regular day. Love to see it," a third fan said. "Venus Williams is 45-years-old and can still do this. Incredible," another person declared. Could this be the start of a career renaissance for Venus? Only time will tell, but she proved to the world that legends can never be counted out. Congratulations to Williams on this incredible Fans Celebrating Tennis Legend Venus Williams On Tuesday first appeared on The Spun on Jul 23, 2025 This story was originally reported by The Spun on Jul 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
News24
3 hours ago
- News24
Venus Williams, at 45, makes triumphant return to tennis after 16-month hiatus
Venus Williams made a remarkable return to singles tennis after a 16-month break, defeating Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 in the DC Open to secure her 819th WTA singles victory. Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu advance to a second-round showdown after impressive wins against Yulia Putintseva and Marta Kostyuk, respectively. On the men's side, Cameron Norrie rallied to defeat world No 7 Lorenzo Musetti, marking his first victory over a top 10 player in over two years. Venus Williams made a triumphant return to singles tennis on Tuesday after a 16-month hiatus, defeating fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round of the WTA and ATP DC Open. The 45-year-old winner of seven career Grand Slam singles titles rolled to her 819th career WTA singles victory in 97 minutes at the first US Open hardcourt tune-up event. 'It is not easy to come off after all that time and play the perfect match,' she said. 'Peyton played so well. I felt like I was trying to slow myself down from going faster and faster and faster.' Williams had not played a WTA singles match since March of last year at Miami and had not won a match in 709 days - since defeating Russian Veronika Kudermetova in the first round at Cincinnati in August 2023. 'I wanted to play a good match and win the match,' Williams said. 'It's so rewarding to come back after a layoff and injuries.' Williams became the oldest player to compete in a WTA tour-level match since Japan's Kimiko Date at 46 in Tokyo in 2017. She became the oldest WTA match winner since Martina Navratilova at age 47 at Wimbledon in 2004. 'Thank you so much for the energy,' Williams told the crowd. 'We were literally living and dying together.' Williams broke for a 4-3 lead in the second set, winning nine of 10 points in one stretch, then held to 5-3 and pushed Stearns in a 12-minute ninth game but missed on four match points before Stearns held. Williams smashed a service winner on her sixth match point for the triumph, booking a second-round date with Polish fifth seed Magdalena Frech. It's like she never left 😮💨 @Venuseswilliams defeats Stearns 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round in the United States capital. #MubadalaCitiDCOpen — wta (@WTA) July 23, 2025 'I'm back here because of the encouragement of my team and they wanted me to come on back and play again so a lot of this is for you guys,' Williams told spectators. 'You guys don't know how much work goes into this. It's nine to five but you're running the whole time, lifting weights and then you're like dying - and then you repeat it the next day.' Japan's Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, ousted Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-2, 7-5, to book a second-round match against Britain's Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open winner who eliminated Ukraine's seventh-seeded Marta Kostyuk 7-6 (7/4), 6-4. 'I'm excited about it,' Osaka said. 'I've never played her before, so for me, that's something really cool too. Because I've seen her, I guess when she first did well at Wimbledon before she won the US Open, moments like that, and I knew she was a good player.' 'I'm looking forward to the match,' Raducanu said. 'It will be a great test of my own game and myself.' Norrie beats Musetti Britain's Cameron Norrie rallied to defeat world number seven Lorenzo Musetti 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Norrie, seeking his sixth ATP title, captured his first victory over a top 10 player in two-and-a-half years. 'I made it very difficult for him,' Norrie said. 'My backhand was coming through the court low. My forehand was jumping. I'm just enjoying my tennis a lot more these days.' Norrie, whose most recent title was in February 2023 at Rio, snapped a 14-match losing streak against top 10 foes. Wimbledon quarter-finalist Norrie next faces US 14th seed Brandon Nakashima.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
DC Open delight for tour veteran Venus Williams
Venus Williams has become the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match in professional tennis, delivering some of her familiar big serves and groundstrokes at age 45 while beating Peyton Stearns — 22 years her junior — 6-3 6-4 at the DC Open. This was the first singles victory for Williams in nearly two years and the only older woman to win a match was Martina Navratilova at 47 in 2004. The former No.1-ranked Williams had not played singles in an official match anywhere since March 2024 in Miami, missing time while having surgery to remove uterine fibroids. She hadn't won in singles since August 2023 in Cincinnati. Until this week, she was listed by the WTA Tour as "inactive." "It is not easy," Williams said, "to (come back) after all that time and play the perfect match." She didn't come to play, she came to SLAY 🔥@Venuseswilliams | #MubadalaCitiDCOpen — wta (@WTA) July 23, 2025 But backed by a crowd that clearly was there to see, and support, her at the hardcourt tournament in the nation's capital, Williams showed glimpses of the talent she possesses and the skills she displayed while earning all of her grand slam titles: seven in singles, 14 in women's doubles — all alongside younger sister Serena — and two in mixed doubles. "I wanted to play a good match," she told the fans, then added a phrase that drew appreciative roars: "and win the match." The first cheer for Williams arrived when she walked out into the main stadium, a 7000-seat arena that's more than twice as large as where she was for her doubles victory a day earlier. Another came when she strode to the centre of the court for the formality of the coin toss. There also were moments where Williams looked as if it had been just as long as it actually has since she competed, including in the opening game, when she got broken to love. At the end, it took her a bit of extra effort to close things out. She failed to convert numerous match points but eventually powered a serve that world No.35 Stearns returned into the net. It's like she never left 😮💨@Venuseswilliams defeats Stearns 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round in the United States capital.#MubadalaCitiDCOpen — wta (@WTA) July 23, 2025 Williams advances to a second-round match-up against fifth-seeded Pole Magdalena Frech while earlier on Tuesday, Emma Raducanu handed No.7 seed Marta Kostyuk a sixth consecutive loss, defeating her 7-6 (7-4) 6-4. This was the fifth tournament in a row where Kostyuk exited in the first round; she hasn't won a match since May 11 in Rome. The 46th-ranked Raducanu, who won the 2021 US Open, will face four-time major champion Naomi Osaka, a 6-2 7-5 winner against Yulia Putintseva, next. At the hardcourt WTA250 event in Prague meantime, Australia's Priscilla Hon was beaten 6-2 3-6 6-3 in the first round by Czech Barbora Palicova in a little over two hours.
