Venus Williams Returns to US Open with Wild Card
The legendary tennis player Venus Williams will make her long-awaited return to a Grand Slam tournament at the US Open. After a two-year absence, Williams, at 45 years old, has received a special invitation to compete in singles at Flushing Meadows. This return marks a milestone, as Williams will become the oldest player to participate in singles at the tournament, surpassing Renée Richards, who competed at 47 years old in 1981. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) had already granted Williams an invitation to the mixed doubles competition, which will take place next week. The singles matches will begin on August 24 in New York. Throughout her brilliant career, Williams has conquered seven individual Grand Slam titles, including victories at the US Open in 2000 and 2001. In addition, she has won 14 women’s doubles titles, all alongside her sister Serena, and two in mixed doubles. Williams’ last participation in a Grand Slam tournament was at the 2023 US Open, where she was eliminated in the first round. Her last singles victory in this tournament was in 2019. In July, Williams resumed her activity in competitive tennis after more than a year of absence. She achieved a victory at the DC Open before being eliminated in the first round in Cincinnati last week.Last year, Williams underwent surgery to remove uterine fibroids and missed a large part of the season. In Washington, she became the oldest woman to win a singles match at circuit level since Martina Navratilova achieved it at 47 at Wimbledon in 2004; Williams also won a doubles match at the DC Open. In New York, Williams will participate in the mixed doubles tournament from August 19 to 20 alongside Reilly Opelka, a 27-year-old American tennis player who was once among the top 20 in the world. Other players who received wild cards for the US Open are Americans Clervie Ngounoue, Julieta Pareja, Caty McNally, Valerie Glozman, and Alyssa Ahn, as well as France’s Caroline Garcia and Australia’s Talia Gibson. The male tennis players who received wild cards are Americans Brandon Holt, Nishesh Basavareddy, Tristan Boyer, Emilio Nava, Stefan Dostanic, and Darwin Blanch, as well as Valentin Royer from France and Tristan Schoolkate from Australia.“Coming out of this match, I feel incredible,” Williams commented after her defeat in Cincinnati. “That means that in this next period [before the US Open] I won’t have to fix injuries. Now I can work on power and speed instead of just making sure I don’t get injured before the tournament.”
Venus Williams
