NEW YORK – Even after two years away from Grand Slam tennis, Venus Williams exhibited several big serves and powerful ground strokes at the US Open Monday night in front of a supportive crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium before losing to Karolinum Chova at 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.
At 45, Williams was the oldest singles player in the hard court tournament, as Rene Richards was 47 in 1981.
“She’s such a legend in our sport,” Muchova said of Williams, adding, “It’s an honor to share the court with her.”
In the fourth match of the comeback, which began last month more than a year after the tour, Williams didn’t make it easy at all on Monday. She also finished 11th in New York and reached the semifinals in both 2023 – when she lost to ultimate champion Coco Gough, and in 2024.
So it would not have been surprising that Williams started slowly, giving away 11 of his first 13 points, 2-0 behind. Crowd members scream, “Let’s go, Venus!” And screamed after her winner and her fiance Andrea Pretty leapt out of his seat – Williams took the next three games and advanced 3-2.
Medova grabbed the next four games and insisted on the set. This ended with Williams hitting four of the 10 double faults in the evening and breaking.
However, Williams, who played the smack, served up to 114 miles and finished with one winner over Muchova, but began the second set to tie the match.
However, in the third set, Muchova was too good as the contest reached 2 hours.
When the match ended, Williams left the court in waves with fans standing up and tribute to players whose first US open title arrived quarter ago.
More recently, Williams had finished his tennis tour for 16 months before entering the tournament in Washington last month. She hasn’t competed anywhere since Miami opened in March 2024, and underwent surgery for uterine fibroids later last year.
The American Tennis Association awarded Williams a wild card at both the mixed doubles event and singles last week.
Williams has not won a match at the US Open in singles since 2019 when he reached the second round in 2019. Since then, Williams has finished in the first round of 2020, 2022 and 2023, missing tournaments in 2021 and 2024.
Williams won two of her seven major singles championships at the Flushing Meadows in 2000 and 2001. The other five appeared at Wimbledon.
Since taking on her professional debut in 1994, she has gathered 14 Grand Slam trophies in women’s doubles along with her younger sister Serena, garnering two mixed doubles, garnering five Olympic tennis medals, and reaching first place in the WTA rankings.
Over the years, both brothers have transcended their sport and become more than a successful athlete. Serena, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, played her final match at 2022 US Open.
“She’s Venus Williams. She’s so iconic in so many different ways,” said the American player who won his first round match at Ash early Monday. “She won so much, and it’s amazing to see how much she still loves the game at her age. It’s amazing to see her here.”
ESPN research and Associated Press contributed to this report.
