Venus Williams makes winning return to tennis aged 45
The all-American pair defeated compatriot Clervie Ngounoue and the retiring Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-1 in the round of 16 for Williams' first victory on the WTA Tour since August 2023, when she defeated Veronika Kudermetova in the opening round of the Cincinnati Open.
Williams, 45, gave her signature twirl after the match as she took in the adulation of the capacity crowd.
'It's just nice to be able to play,' Williams said after the match, per the Associated Press.
'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 told NBC earlier this month that she had undergone surgery to remove fibroids from her uterus, a condition she said had affected her career and life for years.
'At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if your health is not there,' she added. '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.'
It was the first time Williams had stepped onto the court at all for an official match since an opening-round defeat to Diana Shnaider at the Miami Open in March 2024. Her last doubles match was almost three years ago.
Williams, who is currently without a ranking in singles or doubles, has won seven grand slam singles titles and 14 in doubles alongside youngster sister Serena, as well as two mixed doubles titles in 1998.
After the win, Williams joked that her and Baptiste should have partnered up much sooner.
'I think, from the first point, I could see that we were going to be a good team,' she said. 'We just should have started playing earlier, years ago, right? I think Serena was just in the way.'
Williams, who accepted wild cards to compete in the singles and doubles, will make her return in the singles competition when she faces American Peyton Stearns in the opening round on Tuesday.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
2 minutes ago
- CNN
Venus Williams' bid for her first winning streak since 2019 ends in a loss to Magdalena Frech in DC
Venus Williams' bid for her first winning streak since 2019 ended with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to 24th-ranked Magdalena Frech at the D.C. Open on Thursday night. Williams is 45, and her victory in the first round Tuesday night against 35th-ranked Peyton Stearns made the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion the oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova was 47 in 2004. That was Williams' first win in singles since 2023, and she joked afterward that she was motivated to succeed because she wanted to be able to get back on the WTA's health insurance plan after being off the tour for more than a year. She won a doubles match in Washington, too. This hard-court tournament was the first event for Williams since March 2024; she missed time because of surgery for uterine fibroids. The last time Williams won at least two matches in a row was in August 2019, at the Cincinnati Open, where she put together three consecutive victories before losing to Madison Keys in the quarterfinals. Williams began well against Frech, going up 2-1. But from there, Frech claimed seven straight games to own the first set and lead 2-0 in the second. Frech is a 27-year-old from Poland whose best Grand Slam showing was a run to the fourth round at the 2024 Australian Open before losing to Coco Gauff. The show under the lights on this evening was all about Williams, whose greeting was much louder when she walked out on court toting a green exercise band. Every time Williams unfurled one of her booming groundstrokes — and make no mistake, she still can hit the ball hard — the crowd in the main stadium let out a roar. The problem for Williams: She frequently was unable to properly calibrate those shots, including when she sailed a forehand way out after rushing forward to get to a short ball off Frech's racket. That gave Frech a 3-2 lead. Williams would drop her head or slump her shoulders after some misses, and she had 14 unforced errors in the opening set, more than twice as many as Frech. Fans often responded with an 'Awwww' right away, before trying to give Williams a boost by yelling support. After Williams fell behind 1-0 in the second set, a chorus rose of 'Here we go, Venus! Here we go!' She generated loud applause after getting a game a few minutes later, and there were clap-accompanied chants of 'Venus!' when she broke to get within 4-2 in that set. But Williams didn't get another game. When it ended after 1 hour, 12 minutes with one last Williams forehand that landed long, spectators gave her a standing ovation, and she responded with a smile and the sort of pirouette and wave she usually reserves for celebrating wins. 'We're never going to say goodbye to Venus Williams, are we?' the stadium announcer said. In other action Thursday, top-seeded Jessica Pegula lost to 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, and Emma Raducanu dominated her first career matchup against Naomi Osaka, winning the showdown between past U.S. Open champions 6-4, 6-2. 'I did feel it had a bit of extra,' Raducanu said. 'It's a match that I feel a lot of people were talking about beforehand.' Raducanu, the first qualifier to claim a Grand Slam title when she did that in New York in 2021 by defeating Fernandez in the final, saved the only two break points she faced Thursday and broke the big-serving Osaka three times. Seeded men advancing included No. 4 Ben Shelton, No. 6 Frances Tiafoe, No. 7 Alex de Minaur, No. 8 Daniil Medvedev, No. 12 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and No. 14 Brandon Nakashima.
CNN
27 minutes ago
- CNN
Venus Williams' bid for her first winning streak since 2019 ends in a loss to Magdalena Frech in DC
Venus Williams' bid for her first winning streak since 2019 ended with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to 24th-ranked Magdalena Frech at the D.C. Open on Thursday night. Williams is 45, and her victory in the first round Tuesday night against 35th-ranked Peyton Stearns made the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion the oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova was 47 in 2004. That was Williams' first win in singles since 2023, and she joked afterward that she was motivated to succeed because she wanted to be able to get back on the WTA's health insurance plan after being off the tour for more than a year. She won a doubles match in Washington, too. This hard-court tournament was the first event for Williams since March 2024; she missed time because of surgery for uterine fibroids. The last time Williams won at least two matches in a row was in August 2019, at the Cincinnati Open, where she put together three consecutive victories before losing to Madison Keys in the quarterfinals. Williams began well against Frech, going up 2-1. But from there, Frech claimed seven straight games to own the first set and lead 2-0 in the second. Frech is a 27-year-old from Poland whose best Grand Slam showing was a run to the fourth round at the 2024 Australian Open before losing to Coco Gauff. The show under the lights on this evening was all about Williams, whose greeting was much louder when she walked out on court toting a green exercise band. Every time Williams unfurled one of her booming groundstrokes — and make no mistake, she still can hit the ball hard — the crowd in the main stadium let out a roar. The problem for Williams: She frequently was unable to properly calibrate those shots, including when she sailed a forehand way out after rushing forward to get to a short ball off Frech's racket. That gave Frech a 3-2 lead. Williams would drop her head or slump her shoulders after some misses, and she had 14 unforced errors in the opening set, more than twice as many as Frech. Fans often responded with an 'Awwww' right away, before trying to give Williams a boost by yelling support. After Williams fell behind 1-0 in the second set, a chorus rose of 'Here we go, Venus! Here we go!' She generated loud applause after getting a game a few minutes later, and there were clap-accompanied chants of 'Venus!' when she broke to get within 4-2 in that set. But Williams didn't get another game. When it ended after 1 hour, 12 minutes with one last Williams forehand that landed long, spectators gave her a standing ovation, and she responded with a smile and the sort of pirouette and wave she usually reserves for celebrating wins. 'We're never going to say goodbye to Venus Williams, are we?' the stadium announcer said. In other action Thursday, top-seeded Jessica Pegula lost to 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, and Emma Raducanu dominated her first career matchup against Naomi Osaka, winning the showdown between past U.S. Open champions 6-4, 6-2. 'I did feel it had a bit of extra,' Raducanu said. 'It's a match that I feel a lot of people were talking about beforehand.' Raducanu, the first qualifier to claim a Grand Slam title when she did that in New York in 2021 by defeating Fernandez in the final, saved the only two break points she faced Thursday and broke the big-serving Osaka three times. Seeded men advancing included No. 4 Ben Shelton, No. 6 Frances Tiafoe, No. 7 Alex de Minaur, No. 8 Daniil Medvedev, No. 12 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and No. 14 Brandon Nakashima.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Svensson's sizzling 60 sets PGA Tour tournament record
Adam Svensson has made a 48-foot eagle putt on the closing hole to complete an 11-under-par 60 to claim a two-shot lead after one round of the PGA Tour's 3M Open. Svensson also made nine birdies and did not drop a shot in the lowest round in the tournament's seven-year history to lead over American Sam Stevens and Dane Thorbjorn Olesen. As Australia's challenge failed to materialise, the Canadian tied the TPC Twin Cities course record set by Paul Goydos at the 2017 3M Championship on the PGA Tour Champions. Chris Gotterup, who finished third at last week's British Open and won the Scottish Open two weeks ago, is three shots back along with Chad Ramey and Matti Schmid. Zac Blair, Chris Kirk, Jake Knapp and Brendan Valdes are another shot back, with Rickie Fowler and Emiliano Grillo among those at six under and four strokes off the pace. An eagle at the last to break the course record‼️Adam Svensson shoots 60 to take the clubhouse lead @3MOpen.📺 @PGATOURLIVE on ESPN+ — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 24, 2025 Svensson's lone tour win is the 2022 RSM Classic. The 31-year-old has one top-25 finish in 21 starts this season and has missed 11 cuts. "I had a great range session today. Just really putted amazing, I made a bunch of breakers. It was probably my best putting round I ever had," he said after needing just 25 putts, including a nearly 40-foot birdie on the 11th hole and a 34-footer on the fourth. His career-best 60 is the second-lowest score on the PGA Tour this season. Jake Knapp shot 59 at the Cognizant Classic in February. Stevens could have shot 59 with an eagle on the par-5 18th, but instead he put his second shot from 246 yards into the water in front of the green, leading to his lone bogey and a 62 that was still his lowest round on tour. "I have a pretty big gap between my three iron and my three wood, and I hit a terrible shot," he said. "I thought if I hit a three wood, it was just going to fly to the back of the green, and I kind of had to hit a three iron perfect to even cover the water. But I figured that was my best chance to shoot 59, so I gave it a go." Fowler and Grillo are among a group of 18 players who rank between 60th and 80th in the FedEx Cup standings, needing a strong performance to help secure spots in the 70-man field for the first playoff event in two weeks. Fowler entered the week at No. 63 and Grillo is No. 71. "At the end of the day, good golf solves a lot of things," Fowler said. Adam Scott, once again, is the leading Australian, some nine shots off the pace in a tie for 77th after opening with a two-under 69. Karl Vilips (70), Cam Davis (71), Aaron Baddeley (73) and Harrison Endycott (73) all need strong second rounds to make the halfway cut. With AAP
