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Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Venus rises: 45-year-old Venus Williams stuns at Citi Open after year-long hiatus
Oh, to be Venus Williams this week. To be 45 and beating women about half her age in both singles and doubles. To be 30 years into her professional tennis career and knocking off a solid up-and-comer and the 2022 NCAA singles champion in Peyton Stearns, the world No. 35. Williams, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, walked onto the stadium court at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. as the sun was setting but played as though it was rising on her career. She had not played a WTA Tour match since March of 2024. She had not won one since 2023. The WTA Tour website doesn't even list her as having a ranking. Yet there she was thumping forehands and backhands across the court on the way to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Stearns, who was shaky from the start against Williams, an icon not just of tennis, not just of women's sports, but of all sports. In some ways, Stearns was an ideal opponent for Williams: a big hitter prone to erratic play on big stages. And while the Citi Open in Washington's Rock Creek Park might not seem like a big stage, once Williams asked for and received a wild card entry into the tournament — and Stearns drew her in the first round — it became the sport's most-talked-about match during a relatively quiet week on the tour as the North American hard-court swing gets underway. On Monday, Williams partnered with Hailey Baptiste in a straight-sets doubles win. She hit the ball cleanly and covered her half of the court efficiently. Her partnership with Baptiste, a rising Black American 23-year-old, made for a good story. Her solid play generated a buzz. But could she do it in singles? Indeed she could. Williams, once an endorsement queen, wore a logo-free black dress and white visor and played uncomplicated tennis, smacking nine aces and attacking at the first strike. She and Stearns traded breaks of serve to start. But then Williams mostly took control, moving Stearns around enough to induce errors and pushing her back into the court. Only four rallies lasted beyond nine shots. Williams set up a set point with a big serve, then hit a kicker that Stearns could not get back to seal the first set at 6-3. Soon, she was up a break in the second set. She stumbled briefly, rattled by a foot fault call, and lost three consecutive games. In a flash Stearns was on the front foot and leading 3-1. But then Williams once more started stepping onto the court and taking the initiative, winning four straight games as the crowd exploded to rally behind her. Serving at 3-5, Stearns saved four match points, during a game that lasted more than 12 minutes, playing some of her best tennis with her back against the wall. But Williams buckled down and climbed out of a 0-30 hole in the next game. An ace got her back even. A big serve that Stearns returned long got her yet another match point that she frittered away with a double fault. Three points later, she had another shot to seal it. One more big serve that Stearns sent into the net and the night was hers. The arms rose in the air at her 819th career victory, and soon she began spinning in the center of the court. 'Venus, Venus, Venus,' Rennae Stubbs said to her during the on-court interview. 'We were living and dying together,' she said to the crowd. Williams isn't the oldest woman to win a WTA Tour singles match. Martina Navratilova won at 47 in 2004. Still, beating No. 35 at 45 — not bad. 'It's just about putting it all together,' she said. 'I wanted to play a good match and win the match.' Williams said her fiance, Italian film star Andrea Preti, encouraged her to try to come back. It was hard but worth it. She next faces Magdalena Fręch of Poland. (Photo: Geoff Burke / Imagn Images) This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Tennis, Women's Tennis 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
13 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Venus rises: 45-year-old Venus Williams stuns at Citi Open after year-long hiatus
Oh, to be Venus Williams this week. To be 45 years old and beating women about half her age in both singles and doubles. To be 30 years into your professional tennis career and knocking off a solid up-and-comer and the 2022 NCAA singles champion in Peyton Stearns, the world No. 35. Williams, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion walked onto the stadium court at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., as the sun was setting but played as though it was rising on her career. She had not played a WTA Tour match since March of 2024. She had not won one since 2023. The WTA Tour website doesn't even list her as having a ranking. Advertisement Yet there she was thumping forehands and backhands across the court against Stearns, who was shaky from the start against Williams, an icon not just of tennis, not just of women's sports, but of all sports. In some ways, Stearns was an ideal opponent for Williams: a big hitter prone to erratic play on big stages. And while the Citi Open in Washington's Rock Creek Park might not seem like a big stage, once Williams asked for and received a wild card entry into the tournament — and Stearns drew her in the first round — it became the sport's most talked about match during a relatively quiet week on the tour as the North American hard court swing gets underway. On Monday, Williams partnered with Hailey Baptiste in a straight sets doubles win. She hit the ball cleanly and covered her half of the court efficiently. Her partnership with Baptiste, a rising Black American 23-year-old made for a good story. Her solid play generated a buzz. But could she do it in singles? Indeed she could. Williams, once an endorsement queen, wore a logo-free black dress and white visor and played uncomplicated tennis, smacking nine aces and attacking at the first strike. She and Stearns traded breaks of serve to start. But then Williams mostly took control, moving Stearns around enough to induce errors and pushing her back into the court. Only four rallies lasted beyond nine shots. Williams set up a set point with a big serve, then hit a kicker that Stearns could not get back to seal the first set, 6-3. Soon, she was up a break in the second set. She stumbled briefly, rattled by a foot fault call and lost three consecutive games. In a flash Stearns was on the front foot leading 3-1. But then Williams once more started stepping onto the court and taking the initiative, winning four straight games as the crowd exploded, rallying behind her. Advertisement Serving at 3-5, Stearns saved four match points, during a final game that lasted more than 12 minutes, playing some of her best tennis with her back against the wall. But Williams buckled down and climbed out of a 0-30 hole in the next game. An ace got her back even. A big serve that Stearns returned long got her yet another match point that she frittered away with a double fault. Three points later, she had another shot to seal it. One more big serve that Stearns sent into the net and the night was hers. The arms rose in the air at her 819th career victory, and soon she began spinning in the center of the court. 'Venus, Venus, Venus,' Renae Stubbs said to her during the on-court interview. 'We were living and dying together,' she said to the crowd. Williams isn't the oldest woman to win a WTA Tour match. Martina Navratilova won at 47 in in 2004. Still, beating No. 35 at 45 — not bad. 'It's just about putting it all together,' she said. 'I wanted to play a good match and win the match.' Williams said her fiance, an Italian film star, Andrea Preti, encouraged her to try to come back. It was hard but worth it. She next faces Magdalena Frech of Poland.
France 24
2 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
Trump threatens to block NFL D.C. stadium deal unless Commanders revert to 'Redskins' name
US President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday to interfere with a deal to build a new football stadium in Washington, D.C., unless the local NFL team, now known as the Commanders, changes its name back to Redskins. The American football team dropped the name Redskins in 2020 after decades of criticism that it was a racial slur with links to the US genocide of the Indigenous population. Trump had called for a return to the name Redskins – and for the Cleveland Guardians baseball team to once again adopt the name Indians – on other occasions, but on Sunday he added that he may take official action. "I may put a restriction on them that if they don't change the name back to the original 'Washington Redskins,' and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, 'Washington Commanders,' I won't make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. The team moved from Washington to suburban Landover, Maryland, in 1997, but earlier this year reached an agreement with the local District of Columbia government to return to the city with a new stadium expected to open in 2030. Trump has limited authority to intervene under the current home-rule law governing federal oversight of the District of Columbia, but he has raised the prospect of taking more control, telling reporters in February, "I think we should take over Washington, D.C." Representatives of the Commanders did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Some fans have advocated readopting the name Redskins out of tradition, but leading Indigenous rights organisations have opposed the name, including the National Congress of American Indians, the Association on American Indian Affairs, and Cultural Survival. At least one group, the Native American Guardian's Association, has supported the name Redskins and the "respectful use of Native American names and imagery in sports, education and public life".
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Climate
- Washington Post
July 21 morning weather update
The inside scoop on D.C. weather from the Capital Weather Gang. Get your D.C. area weather update in under a minute on weekday mornings.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
White House claims Epstein case is ‘hoax' ... because Democrats are talking about it
The White House is struggling to explain President Donald Trump's insistence that the bipartisan clamor for release of case files from the prosecution of multimillionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is part of a 'hoax' generated by his political foes. The pushback continued in the White House briefing room Thursday as even some of the president's most fervent supporters continue to press for more transparency around the notorious case. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt faced pointed questions from reporters on why Trump continues to lash out and insist there's nothing to see regarding the prosecution of the Epstein, with whom he maintained a friendship for years. Asked what about the Epstein case, which featured multiple victims who testified about being trafficked and raped by Epstein, was a 'hoax,' as Trump posted on social media in a rant Wednesday, Leavitt ignored the president's claim that the entire matter had been made up from whole cloth. Instead she said the 'hoax' status assigned by Trump stems from the fact that Democrats are now joining his supporters in pushing for the case files to be made public. 'The President is referring to the fact that Democrats have now seized on this as if they ever wanted transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein, which is an asinine suggestion for any Democrat to make,' she said. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 17, 2025 (Reuters) 'The Democrats had control of this building, the White House, for four years, and they didn't do a dang thing when it come came to transparency in regards to Jeffrey Epstein and his heinous crimes.' Trump made a series of angry social media posts and public statements a day earlier in which he assailed his political base on Truth Social for pushing for the so-called 'Epstein Files' to be made public and complained that his 'PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker.' He went on to disavow those supporters who still want his administration to come clean on the case files assembled as federal investigators and prosecutors built a case against Epstein for sex trafficking during his first term, writing: 'Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore! Trump also attacked his supporters and called them 'stupid' and 'foolish' during an Oval Office media availability in which he claimed the entire case had been cooked up by Democrats to damage him. Leavitt credited Trump with having commissioned an 'exhaustive review' of the case files by FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, calling the law enforcement officials 'great patriots' and 'some of the most trusted voices in the Republican Party movement.' 'They spent many months going through all of the files related to Jeffrey Epstein, and they concluded what they found in that memo, which they drafted and they released. And so the President has been transparent. He has followed through on his promises to the American people, but he doesn't like to see Democrats in the mainstream media covering this like it's the biggest story that the American people care about,' she added. When The Independent asked if Trump would consider pardoning Epstein's convicted co-conspirator, Ghislane Maxwell, if she is in prison as a result of a 'hoax,' Leavitt declined to respond. The case of Epstein, a former math teacher turned financier who was arrested for alleged sex trafficking by federal authorities in 2019, has been a longtime fixation for many of Trump's Maga supporters who believe they contain damaging information on prominent Democrats and other liberal celebrities. For years, the president's supporters have pushed for release of what they believe was a list of powerful people to whom Epstein is alleged to have trafficked young girls, as well as other information they believe would reflect negatively on members of the Democratic Party, various Hollywood celebrities, and other purported elites who they believe to be part of a sinister cabal controlling world events. Trump has winked and nodded at such beliefs and had indicated during his 2024 campaign that his administration would release the documents in question if he were victorious in last year's presidential election. But last week, the DOJ and FBI issued a memo stating that there was no such client list and announcing that no additional files relating to the case would be made public. The agencies had determined that no 'further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,' much was sealed by a court to protect Epstein's victims, and 'only a fraction' of it 'would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.' Additionally, the memo said that no further charges were expected as investigators 'did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.' The president was once closely associated with and spoke highly of the disgraced financier and his proclivity for surrounding himself with young women, while Epstein at one point described himself as Trump's 'best friend,' leading to speculation that the president has been trying to prevent release of the files despite a campaign promise to do so because their content would reflect poorly on him.
