No one knew What to look forward to Venus Williams after her opening round match held at the Cincinnati Open earlier this month.
It’s understandable if she gets mad at loss at the loss after showing a vintage-shaped flash of light, seven-time major champion and former world No. 1, just lost to Jessica Boosa Smaneiro, 6-4, 6-4.
There was silence as she entered the room for a press conference about an hour after the match. But it didn’t last long. The moderator asked 45-year-old Williams to give her first thought about what happened under the hot, damp afternoon sun, and a big smile quickly filled her face.
“I had so much fun,” she said.
Williams revealed that she wanted to win — and she felt that she had her own chance — she couldn’t hide the joy she felt just by playing the sport she loved. That same Bridred’s enthusiasm was visible in her first tournament, returning in more than a year, with her run at the City Open in July.
On Tuesday, Williams will return to her enthusiastic and highly anticipated US Open as part of a new look doubles draw paired with longtime friend Reilly Opelka. After receiving the wild card next week, she will perform in a single draw in New York, marking her 25th main draw appearance at the event, marking her first appearance since 2023.
Williams ranks 654th in the world, and it remains to be seen how fares will be in tournaments, singles or mixed doubles. But no matter what, one thing seems certain. Nearly 31 years after her professional debut, and with countless health horrors and surgeries along the way, no one may have gained more respect or play in tournaments than Williams.
“Love is the key, right? If you don’t love it, then you’ll get out of it,” Williams told Cincinnati reporters when asked about her longevity in the sport. “I think a lot of the motivation for me is trying to come back and play in the best possible health. It wasn’t as hard as I was playing the tournament, and it wasn’t even stopped me from hitting the ball when I was away, not as I was still there.
“And at the end of the day, you think you have to live your life on your own terms. Your term should be yours. It doesn’t matter what someone else says or what someone else thinks. If you can live your life in your own words, it’s well.”
For many In the past two seasons, there has been speculation that Williams has suddenly retired from tennis. She played in only two tournaments in 2024 with the Indian Wells and Miami, losing in the opening round in both.
Her sister Serena retired to a big fanfare at the US Open in 2022, but in a much-monitored celebratory run, Venus revealed that she did not want such a victory lap in the sunset. Famous and private, often the media was Kaysey, and she frequently rejected questions about the future and was rarely given as much as the hints she had when asked.
“I wouldn’t tell you, so… I don’t know. I don’t know why you’re asking,” Williams said at a press conference at the US Open two years ago.
However, some wonder whether Venus has followed her on her own terms, due to Serena and other highly decorated companions, such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova in recent years, and her successful interests outside of tennis.
Still, there were clues that Williams wasn’t completely out of the game, especially in recent months. There were occasional practice and training videos on her social media pages. It was announced in March by the Indian Wells Tournament. She awkwardly denied performing at the event a few days later, but the seeds were planted. And for Williams, her overwhelmingly positive response to “fake news” in her words was surprising.
“I remember everyone being so happy, so it felt sad to let everyone down and say, ‘I’m not playing,'” Williams said earlier this month. “I said, ‘I don’t want to break anyone’s heart. It’s not the real thing, I’m sorry I’m not there.”
Williams experienced the same overwhelming fan acclaim when he appeared throughout the French Open as part of TNT’s broadcast team. The onset conversation featuring Williams, Sloan Stephens and ultimate champion Cocogoff quickly went viral. Gough and Stevens, who have been on the sidelines for injuries since February, welcomed the admiration for Williams and how they inspired their career as a young black woman in the sport.
Behind the scenes, Williams was on the training court and on the gym. After undergoing surgery to remove the fibroids last August, Williams said she couldn’t even stand up straight early in her recovery. However, it didn’t take her long for her to return to the familiar and comfortable boundaries of the tennis courts that had provided her shelter since her childhood. She initially didn’t think exactly about the return of the experts – she joked that she knew that at least would help her “keep me” – but she was always focused on improving.
In the spring, Williams asked Marc Ein, owner of the City Open Tournament, if wild cards could be made.
“She asked me this – actually a few months ago, something as something, and if we’d consider it,” Ein said in an interview with Ben Rothenberg of “Bounce” before the July tournament. “Of course.” And obviously it’s been working for quite some time.
Williams spent the day at Wimbledon as an audience in early July, solidifying her desire to come back.
“It was so beautiful and exciting, and I remembered all the time I had, and of course adrenaline, all of them,” Williams later said. “The pure fun of playing the game, the fun of challenges, the overcoming – when you play, you overcome so many challenges: your opponent, conditions, the things you often have to overcome. They are very exciting.”
Her participation in the City Open was announced soon about two weeks before the tournament began, and this time she did not deny it. She did everything she could in Practice Court to take the form of the match, and said her goal to reach the tournament was simply to “get the best” out of herself.
Williams arrived at a pre-tournament press conference, pasting a smile on her face, but it never faded throughout the week. “I love tennis,” she explained.
Her enthusiasm and fan support were obvious, but we didn’t see how Williams played in her first competitive match in 16 months. Time in the Practice Court cannot replicate the coincidence, and she admitted it takes time to get back to the swing of things.
In her first match she played doubles with 23-year-old Haley Baptist, who called the opportunity “a dream come true.” (It’s worth noting, it marked one of Bouchard’s final matches before his retirement. The 31-year-old was born the same year Williams made her professional debut.)
The Baptist, who met Williams while participating in the tournament as a young fan, was adored by the fierce fires of Williams’ competition after the match.
“I think she’s always out to kill, because she’s been so dominant in her career,” Baptist said. “We’re down at 15-40 in her service game. She’s like, ‘It’s okay, let’s get three in a row.’ And we did. ”
The next day, Williams was operating in Singles Court. Facing Payton Stearns and later ranked 35th in the world, Williams needed just 97 minutes to become the oldest player to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Nabratilova in 2004, earning a decisive 6-3, 6-4 victory. It was her first singles victory in almost two years, and her joy was clear when she smiled and waved at the crowd – and showed off her thoughts of walnuts after her signature. She later told reporters she felt “surprising” and reiterated how happy she was to be there.
“You know, it’s the first step, and the first game is always very difficult,” Williams said. “It’s hard to explain how difficult it is to play your first match after a holiday. So, I know that getting into a match has the ability to win, but that’s actually about winning.
“I’m here with friends, family, people I love, and fans I love. They love me, so this was just a beautiful night.”
Stearns, who said Williams’ serve was “on fire,” was forced to praise his opponent after the match.
“I really admire her to come back here and play, win, lose,” Stearns said. “That’s especially what she did for the sport and it takes a lot of courage to get back on the court.”
The highlights of the match are widespread. Williams lost his next match in singles and doubles, but ended up winning a wild card invitation to the Cincinnati Open. She said after the loss of her second round singles she wanted, “I wouldn’t have been happy going back to my first week.”
Williams has been emitting the same satisfaction and joy throughout the summer. From her packed practice sessions in Cincinnati to her newspaper meetings and her match attitude, Williams appears to be grateful for everything that comes with life as a professional tennis player. Even her peers could only offend her about her presence. Currently a two-time major champion and ranked second in the world, Goff played Williams in his 2019 major main draw debut, calling him “surreal” because Williams is still there.
Gough added that she had known it was an honor to share the court with her over six years ago, but that could be the only time she had a chance, so she had enjoyed it. She knows well now.
“Now she’s playing on the tour (again) and she’s playing great, so I definitely know that there’s a good chance we’ll play each other again,” Gauff said in Cincinnati. “And I look forward to it because you can always have the consequences and things like that, and my children (someday).
Williams had already shown that she was planning on playing, which sometimes felt like the worst secret in tennis, but she officially received the wild card to play in a single draw at the US Open on Wednesday. She is a two-time champion at the event, but many of the other competitors in the draw were not born for either of her titles in 2000 and 2001.
Williams, the oldest player to play singles in a tournament since 1981, can barely prove at this stage. She made it clear that she wants to win, but simply being healthy and able to play at a high level is a victory. In addition to painful symptoms, she endured fibroids, and in the aftermath of the surgical procedure she was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome in 2011, becoming open about the impact that autoimmune disorder had on her life and career.
Williams is proud of what she did in court — and while she is out of court as a tennis leader to achieve wage equality at Wimbledon and Roland Garros, she is also very aware of the major finals she has never played: mixed doubles at the US Open.
She reached the title match with every slam (certainly surprising stats) of all the other singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, but has once reached the quarterfinals of New York’s mixed doubles. This year’s improved event is considered a more glorious exhibition, but for Williams it’s more than that.
“It’s kind of a priority for me to play it because that’s one thing I’ve never done,” Williams said. “I’ve always been very close to the winners circle of everything in this career I had, but it’s one piece.
“So my goal is to have Riley carry the team. He’s been informed and he has his duties.”
Williams is not planning to play in another tournament this year after the US Open ends. However, she has rarely played during the Asian swings late in the season in the last decade, so that doesn’t make any sense from a perspective of her long-term future.
If she did, she wouldn’t tell anyone.
It seems nothing should be envisioned about Williams in his fourth year as a professional athlete.
“I’ve had so many in that moment,” Williams said when asked about next season. “I don’t think you should rule me out. That’s all I can say.”
