Tennis legend Venus Williams on Monday night returned to the court after a gap of two years as she played her first Grand Slam match at the US Open in Arthur Ashe Stadium, facing 2023 French Open runner-up Karolina Muchova, reported AP.
She started slowly and conceded 11 of the initial 13 points and fell behind 2-0. However, as her fans at the crowd shouting, “Let’s go, Venus!”, she took the next three games to go ahead 3-2, before Muchova grabbed the next four to claim the set.
According to the details, Williams, at 45, is the oldest singles player at the hard-court tournament since Renee Richards, who was 47 in 1981.
Her opponent Muchova, a 29-year-old from the Czech Republic, was seeded 11th in New York. She had made it to the semifinals there in both 2023 and 2024. Muchova lost to eventual champion Coco Gauff in a match interrupted by a climate protest in 2023.
About Venus Williams:
In 2000 and 2001, Williams won two of her seven major singles championships at Flushing Meadows. While her other five came at Wimbledon.
After making her professional debut in 1994, she’s also collected 14 Grand Slam trophies in women’s doubles alongside her younger sister, Serena, plus two in mixed doubles, earned a record five Olympic tennis medals and reached No. 1 in the WTA rankings.
Her elder sister Serena won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, played her last match at the 2022 US Open.
Until making a comeback at a tournament in Washington last month, Serena was off the tennis tour for 16 months. She won one match each in singles and doubles. Since the Miami Open in March 2024, Serena hadn’t competed anywhere, and following this, she underwent surgery for uterine fibroids.
Last week, the US Tennis Association awarded Venus Williams wild cards for both the mixed doubles and singles events.
Meanwhile, Venus hasn’t won a match at the US Open in singles since 2019. At that event she got to the second round. But Williams exited in the first round in 2020, 2022 and 2023, and missed the tournament in 2021 and 2024.
“I want to be my best, and that’s the expectation I have for myself: to get the best out of me. And that’s all any player can ask for,” AP quoted Venus Williams as saying on Saturday, the day before the start of singles play at the US Open.
“I haven’t played as much as the other players, so it’s a different challenge when you’re dealing with that. So I’m just trying to have fun, stay relaxed and be my personal best,” she added.
