Venus Williams will make her return to Grand Slam tennis on the U.S. Open after a two-year absence, receiving a wild-card invitation on Wednesday to compete in singles at Flushing Meadows at age 45.
The American would be the oldest entrant in singles on the match since Renee Richards was 47 in 1981, in line with the Worldwide Tennis Federation.
Williams already had been given a wild-card entry by the U.S. Tennis Affiliation for subsequent week’s combined doubles competitors. Singles matches start in New York on Aug. 24.
She is the proprietor of seven main singles championships — together with on the U.S. Open in 2000 and 2001 — together with one other 14 in girls’s doubles, all gained together with her youthful sister, Serena, plus two in combined doubles. Serena retired with 23 Slam singles trophies after taking part in on the 2022 U.S. Open.
The older Williams final participated in a Grand Slam match on the 2023 U.S. Open, shedding within the first spherical. She hasn’t gained a singles match there since 2019.
When Williams got here again to the tour final month on the DC Open for her first match wherever in 16 months, a reporter requested whether or not that will be a one-time factor or if there have been plans for different tournaments.
“I’m just here for now, and who knows?” she replied then. “Maybe there’s more. … But at the moment, I’m focused just on this. I haven’t played in a year. There is no doubt I can play tennis, but obviously coming back to play matches, it takes time to get in the swing of things. I definitely feel I’ll play well. I’m still the same player. I’m a big hitter. I hit big. This is my brand.”
Final yr, Williams had surgical procedure to take away uterine fibroids and missed many of the season. In Washington this July, she competed for the primary time since March 2024 on the Miami Open and have become the oldest lady to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova was 47 at Wimbledon in 2004; Williams additionally gained a doubles match on the DC Open.
Within the course of, Williams drew a ton of consideration for her tennis, sure, but in addition for letting the world know she’s engaged to an Italian actor and for her half-joking feedback about needing to get again on court docket to get coated by medical insurance.
“I love Venus. We’re friends. I didn’t really know this was something she was still wanting to do. But I also didn’t know it was something she didn’t want to do,” stated Mark Ein, the chairman of the hard-court match in Washington. “I was surprised. And it was a wonderful surprise.”
Williams additionally entered the Cincinnati Open through a wild card final week, exiting within the first spherical of singles.
In New York, she’s going to play within the Aug. 19-20 combined doubles match with Reilly Opelka, a 27-year-old American who was ranked within the prime 20.
Different girls getting singles wild playing cards for the U.S. Open are People Clervie Ngounoue, Julieta Pareja, Caty McNally, Valerie Glozman and Alyssa Ahn, plus France’s Caroline Garcia — who’ll be taking part in in her final Grand Slam match earlier than retirement — and Australia’s Talia Gibson.
Males’s wild playing cards went to People Brandon Holt, Nishesh Basavareddy, Tristan Boyer, Emilio Nava, Stefan Dostanic and Darwin Blanch, and France’s Valentin Royer and Australia’s Tristan Schoolkate.
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