Venus Williams Falls at the US Open, but Leaves an Unforgettable Mark
New York – Despite a two-year absence from the Grand Slams, Venus Williams demonstrated her powerful serve and solid strokes at the US Open on Monday night. Although she lost to Karolina Muchova with a score of 6-3, 2-6, 6-1, Williams, at 45 years old, left a clear sign of her unparalleled talent. Williams, the oldest singles player in the tournament, surpassed Renee Richards, who participated in 1981. This was her twenty-fifth appearance in the US Open main draw, a record in the Open era. The match against Muchova, 29 years old and from the Czech Republic, seeded number 11, was not easy. Muchova, a semi-finalist in 2023 and 2024, proved to be a formidable opponent. Williams started with difficulty, losing the first points and falling 2-0 behind. With the support of the public and the enthusiasm of her fiancé, Andrea Preti, Venus rallied to get to 3-2. However, Muchova reacted and took the set. In the second set, Williams managed to tie the match, but in the third, Muchova, runner-up of the 2023 French Open, demonstrated her superiority. Venus Williams has won two of her seven Grand Slam singles championships at Flushing Meadows, in 2000 and 2001. The other five titles she obtained at Wimbledon. Since her professional debut in 1994, she has accumulated 14 Grand Slam titles in women’s doubles with her sister Serena, as well as two in mixed doubles. She has also won five Olympic medals and reached number 1 in the WTA ranking. Both Venus and Serena have transcended the sport, becoming much more than successful athletes. Serena, with 23 Grand Slam singles titles, played her last match at the 2022 US Open. Venus Williams was out of the circuit for 16 months, returning to a tournament in Washington last month, where she won a match in both singles and doubles. She had not competed since the Miami Open in March 2024 and underwent surgery for uterine fibroids last year. The U.S. Tennis Association awarded Williams invitations to last week’s mixed doubles event and to singles.She hasn’t won a singles match at the US Open since 2019, when she reached the second round. Since then, Williams was eliminated in the first round in 2020, 2022 and 2023, and missed the tournament in 2021 and 2024.
