Venus Williams will compete in ladies’s doubles on the U.S. Open after receiving a wild-card entry with 2021 singles runner-up Leylah Fernandez on Tuesday.
The 45-year-old Williams is showing at her first Grand Slam match in two years after making a comeback to professional tennis in July following 16 months away from the tour.
She competed in combined doubles final week, then in singles on Monday evening — each additionally through wild-card invites from the U.S. Tennis Affiliation.
Williams exited within the first spherical every time, however was thrilled to be again out on court docket after coping with accidents and sickness. She had surgical procedure for uterine fibroids final 12 months, and spoke Monday following her three-set exit in singles in opposition to Eleventh-seeded Karolina Muchova about being relieved to be pain-free.
“Oh, what did I show to myself?” Williams stated, repeating a part of a reporter’s query at her postmatch information convention. “I feel for me, getting again on the court docket was about giving myself an opportunity to play extra wholesome. While you play unhealthy, it’s in your thoughts. It’s not simply how you’re feeling. You get caught in your thoughts, too. So it was good to be freer.”
She was the oldest individual to play singles on the U.S. Open since 1981, and the spectators cherished each second of it, greeting her with digicam telephones held aloft, shouting “Let’s go, Venus!” through the match and ushering her off the Arthur Ashe Stadium court docket with a standing ovation.
Along with her seven Grand Slam singles trophies, Williams owns 14 main titles in ladies’s doubles, all together with her youthful sister, Serena, as her accomplice. Two of these got here in New York, in 1999 and 2009.
They final performed collectively on the U.S. Open in 2022, the 12 months Serena performed her ultimate singles match there.
Williams and Fernandez, a 22-year-old from Canada, will face the sixth-seeded pair of Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and Ellen Perez of Australia within the first spherical.
Fernandez misplaced to Emma Raducanu within the U.S. Open singles ultimate 4 years in the past.
Williams hadn’t performed an official match anyplace for the reason that Miami Open in March 2024 till she surprisingly accepted a wild card to the hard-court match in Washington final month. She entered the singles and doubles occasions there, profitable one match in every bracket.
This U.S. Open is her first main match since she performed at Flushing Meadows in 2023.
The doll will characteristic Williams in all white with a inexperienced gem necklace, wristband, racket and tennis ball. It’s going to retail for $35.
