NO ONE KNEW what to anticipate from Venus Williams after her opening-round match on the Cincinnati Open earlier this month.
The seven-time main champion and former world No. 1 had simply misplaced to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, 6-4, 6-4, and it will be comprehensible if she was upset concerning the loss after exhibiting flashes of her classic kind all through.
There was silence as she walked into the room for her information convention about an hour after the match. However it did not final lengthy. The moderator requested 45-year-old Williams to offer her preliminary ideas about what had transpired within the sizzling and humid afternoon solar, and a large smile instantly crammed her face.
“I had a lot enjoyable on the market,” she mentioned.
Whereas Williams made it clear she had needed to win — and felt she had her probabilities — she could not conceal the enjoyment she felt just by taking part in the game she beloved. That very same unbridled enthusiasm was seen throughout her run on the Citi Open in July, her first event again in over a 12 months, the place she reached the second spherical in singles and doubles.
On Tuesday, Williams will make her eagerly awaited return to the US Open as a part of the new-look combined doubles draw, paired with longtime good friend Reilly Opelka. Subsequent week, after receiving a wild card, she is going to play within the singles attract New York, marking her twenty fifth major draw look on the occasion, and her first since 2023.
Williams is ranked No. 654 on the earth, and it stays to be seen how she is going to fare on the event, in singles or in combined doubles. However it doesn’t matter what, one factor appears sure: Almost 31 years after making her skilled debut, and with numerous well being scares and surgical procedures alongside the best way, there may be nobody who will garner extra respect from her friends or get pleasure from taking part in within the event greater than Williams.
“Love is the important thing, proper? In the event you do not find it irresistible, then get out of it,” Williams instructed reporters in Cincinnati when requested about her longevity within the sport. “I believe a variety of the motivation for me is simply to return again and attempt to play in the most effective well being that I can. I by no means stopped hitting the ball even after I was away, not as intensely as you’ll for those who have been taking part in tournaments, however I used to be nonetheless going on the market.
“And I believe that on the finish of the day, you need to reside your life by yourself phrases. Your phrases must be yours. It would not matter what anybody else says or what anybody else thinks. In the event you get to reside life by yourself phrases, it’s a life properly lived.”
FOR MUCH OF the previous two seasons, there was hypothesis that Williams had unceremoniously retired from tennis. She had performed in simply two tournaments in 2024, in Indian Wells and Miami, and had misplaced within the opening spherical in each.
Whereas her youthful sister Serena had retired to nice fanfare on the US Open in 2022, with a much-watched celebratory run, Venus had made it clear she needed no such victory lap into the sundown. Notoriously non-public and sometimes cagey with the media, she had often dismissed questions on her future and infrequently given as a lot as a touch when requested.
“I would not inform you, so … I do not know. I do not know why you are asking,” Williams mentioned at a information convention on the US Open two years in the past.
However with the absence of Serena, in addition to different extremely embellished friends similar to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova, lately, and her profitable pursuits exterior of tennis, some questioned whether or not Venus had adopted swimsuit, on her personal phrases.
Nonetheless, there have been clues, particularly in latest months that Williams hadn’t stepped away from the sport utterly. There have been occasional observe and coaching movies on her social media pages. In March, it was introduced by the Indian Wells event that she had acquired a wild card to play. She awkwardly denied she can be taking part in on the occasion a number of days later, however a seed had been planted. And for Williams, the overwhelmingly constructive response to the “pretend information,” in her phrases, was stunning.
“I simply bear in mind everybody was so blissful, that I felt unhappy to let everybody down and say, ‘I am not taking part in,'” Williams mentioned earlier this month. “I used to be like, ‘I do not need to break anybody’s coronary heart. I am sorry it is not actual and I am going to not be there.'”
Williams skilled that very same overwhelming fan admiration when she appeared all through the French Open as a part of TNT’s broadcast staff. An on-set dialog that includes Williams, Sloane Stephens and eventual champion Coco Gauff went nearly instantly viral. Each Gauff and Stephens, who has been sidelined by damage since February, have been effusive with their reward for Williams and the way she had impressed their very own careers as younger Black girls within the sport.
Behind the scenes, Williams was on the observe courtroom and within the health club. After present process surgical procedure final August to take away uterine fibroids, Williams mentioned she was initially unable to even arise straight throughout the early days of her restoration. However it did not take lengthy for her to get again to the acquainted and comfy confines of the tennis courtroom, a spot that had offered her refuge since her early childhood. She wasn’t precisely serious about an expert return at first — joking that she knew it will not less than assist her “maintain my determine” if nothing else — however she was all the time targeted on enhancing.
Within the spring, Williams requested Mark Ein, the Citi Open event proprietor, whether or not a wild card can be doable.
“She talked about this to me — truly months in the past — as one thing, and requested if we’d contemplate it,” Ein mentioned in an interview with Ben Rothenberg of “Bounces” forward of the event in July. “I mentioned, ‘In fact.’ And so clearly it has been within the works for fairly some time. However she’s been coaching laborious, and we confirmed it.”
Williams spent a day at Wimbledon in early July as a spectator, and it cemented her want to return.
“It was so stunning and thrilling, and I remembered all of the occasions that I had, and naturally the adrenaline, all these issues,” Williams later mentioned. “I believe simply the pure enjoyable of taking part in the sport, the enjoyable of the problem, overcoming — while you play, you overcome so many challenges: your opponents, the circumstances, a variety of occasions you need to overcome your self. These issues are very thrilling.”
Her participation on the Citi Open was introduced quickly after, about two weeks earlier than the event was scheduled to start out, and this time, she did not deny it. She did every little thing she might on the observe courtroom to get in match form and mentioned her purpose main into the event was merely to “get the most effective” out of herself.
Williams arrived to her pre-tournament information convention with a smile plastered on her face, and it by no means appeared to fade all through the week. “I am in love with tennis,” she defined.
Whereas her enthusiasm and the fan assist have been palpable, it remained to be seen how Williams would play in her first aggressive match in 16 months. No period of time on the observe courtroom can replicate a match, and she or he admitted it will take time to get again into the swing of issues.
In her first match, taking part in doubles with Hailey Baptiste — a 23-year-old who referred to as the chance “a dream come true” — the pair was dominant in opposition to Clervie Ngounoue and Eugenie Bouchard, incomes a 6-3, 6-1 victory in entrance of a sold-out crowd that included Kevin Durant. (Price noting, it marked one of many last matches of Bouchard’s profession earlier than retiring. The 31-year-old was born the identical 12 months that Williams made her skilled debut.)
Baptiste, who met Williams whereas attending the event as a younger fan, was in awe of Williams’ aggressive hearth after the match.
“I believe that she’s all the time out to kill, which is apparent, as a result of she’s been so dominant in her profession,” Baptiste mentioned. “We’re down one time 15-40 in her service sport, and she or he’s like, ‘All proper, let’s get three in a row.’ And we did.”
The next day, Williams was again in motion on the singles courtroom. Going through Peyton Stearns, then ranked No. 35 on the earth, Williams wanted simply 97 minutes to turn out to be the oldest participant to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova in 2004, incomes a decisive 6-3, 6-4 victory. It was her first singles win in nearly two years, and her pleasure was evident as she smiled and waved to the group — and even displayed her signature postmatch twirl. She later instructed reporters she was feeling “wonderful” and reiterated how blissful she was to be there.
“, it is step one, and the primary match is all the time extraordinarily troublesome,” Williams mentioned. “It is laborious to explain how troublesome it’s to play a primary match after a lot day off. So going into the match, I do know I’ve the flexibility to win, however it’s all about truly successful. So that is the most effective outcome, to play an excellent match and win.
“I am right here with my associates, household, individuals I really like, and the followers, too, who I really like they usually love me, so this has been only a stunning evening.”
Stearns — who mentioned Williams’ serves have been “on hearth” — could not assist however reward her opponent after the match.
“I’ve a lot respect for her to return again right here and play, win or lose,” Stearns mentioned. “That takes a variety of guts to step again onto courtroom, particularly with what she’s achieved for the game.”
Highlights of the match unfold far and vast. Although Williams misplaced in her subsequent matches in singles and doubles, she nonetheless earned a wild-card invitation to the Cincinnati Open because of this. Whereas she mentioned after her second-round singles loss that it was “positively not the outcome” she had needed, she added that she “could not have been happier with my first week again.”
Williams has continued to radiate that very same contentment and pleasure all summer season. From her packed observe periods in Cincinnati to her information conferences to her match demeanor, Williams appears to understand every little thing that comes with the lifetime of an expert tennis participant. Even her friends could not assist however be giddy about her presence. Gauff, now a two-time main champion and ranked No. 2 on the earth, performed in opposition to Williams in her main major draw debut in 2019 — and referred to as it “surreal” to nonetheless have Williams round.
Gauff added that she knew it had been an honor to share the courtroom along with her greater than six years in the past however that she had relished it as a result of it could possibly be the one time she would get the possibility. She is aware of higher now.
“Now that she’s taking part in on tour [again] and in addition taking part in nice, I do know there’s positively a excessive likelihood that we’ll play one another once more,” Gauff mentioned in Cincinnati. “And I stay up for it as a result of anytime you’ll be able to step on the courtroom with a legend is particular, whatever the outcome or issues like that, and one thing that I can inform my youngsters [about someday].”
Whereas Williams had already indicated she was planning to play, and it felt at occasions just like the worst-kept secret in tennis, she formally acquired a wild card to play within the singles draw on the US Open on Wednesday. She is a two-time champion on the occasion, though most of the different opponents within the draw weren’t born for both of her titles, in 2000 and 2001. She final gained a match on the occasion in 2019, earlier than dropping within the second spherical, however had reached the semifinals two years prior.
Williams, who would be the oldest participant to play singles on the event since 1981, has little to show at this stage. She has made it clear she needs to win, however it’s evident that merely being wholesome and capable of play at a excessive degree is a victory. Along with the painful signs she endured with the uterine fibroids and within the aftermath of the surgical process, she was recognized with Sjögren’s syndrome in 2011, and she or he has been candid concerning the influence the autoimmune dysfunction has had on her life and profession.
Williams is pleased with what she has achieved on the courtroom — and off the courtroom as tennis’s chief in attaining pay fairness at Wimbledon and Roland Garros — however can be very conscious of the one main last she has by no means performed in: combined doubles on the US Open.
She has made it to the title match in each different singles, doubles and combined doubles draw at all the Slams — a mind-blowing stat, to make sure — however has solely ever made it to the quarterfinals in combined doubles in New York. Whereas some see this 12 months’s revamped occasion as extra of a glorified exhibition, it is excess of that to Williams.
“It is sort of a precedence for me to play that as a result of it is the one factor I’ve by no means achieved,” Williams mentioned. “I’ve all the time been very near the winner’s circle of each single factor on this profession I’ve had. However that is the one piece.
“So my purpose is that Reilly will carry the staff. He is been knowledgeable, and he is acquired his task.”
Williams doesn’t plan to play in one other event this 12 months as soon as the US Open has concluded. However, as she has hardly ever performed throughout the late-season Asian swing over the previous decade, that does not precisely imply a lot by way of her long-term future.
Not that she would ever inform anybody if it did.
In her fourth decade as an expert athlete, it appears nothing ought to ever be assumed about Williams — her love for tennis merely is aware of no bounds.
“I am very a lot within the second,” Williams mentioned when requested about subsequent season. “I do not assume it’s best to ever rule me out. That is all I can say.”