Venus rises: 45-year-old Venus Williams stuns at Citi Open after year-long hiatus – The New York Times

Tennis
Oh, to be Venus Williams this week.
To be 45 years old and beating women about half her age in both singles and doubles. To be 30 years into your professional tennis career and knocking off a solid up-and-comer and the 2022 NCAA singles champion in Peyton Stearns, the world No. 35.
Williams, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, walked onto the stadium court at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. as the sun was setting but played as though it was rising on her career. She had not played a WTA Tour match since March of 2024. She had not won one since 2023. The WTA Tour website doesn’t even list her as having a ranking.
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Yet there she was thumping forehands and backhands across the court on the way to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Stearns, who was shaky from the start against Williams, an icon not just of tennis, not just of women’s sports, but of all sports. In some ways, Stearns was an ideal opponent for Williams: a big hitter prone to erratic play on big stages. And while the Citi Open in Washington’s Rock Creek Park might not seem like a big stage, once Williams asked for and received a wild card entry into the tournament — and Stearns drew her in the first round — it became the sport’s most-talked-about match during a relatively quiet week on the tour as the North American hard court swing gets underway.
On Monday, Williams partnered with Hailey Baptiste in a straight-sets doubles win. She hit the ball cleanly and covered her half of the court efficiently. Her partnership with Baptiste, a rising Black American 23-year-old, made for a good story. Her solid play generated a buzz. But could she do it in singles?
Indeed she could. Williams, once an endorsement queen, wore a logo-free black dress and white visor and played uncomplicated tennis, smacking nine aces and attacking at the first strike.
She and Stearns traded breaks of serve to start. But then Williams mostly took control, moving Stearns around enough to induce errors and pushing her back into the court. Only four rallies lasted beyond nine shots.
Williams set up a set point with a big serve, then hit a kicker that Stearns could not get back to seal the first set at 6-3.
Soon, she was up a break in the second set. She stumbled briefly, rattled by a foot fault call and lost three consecutive games. In a flash Stearns was on the front foot leading 3-1. But then Williams once more started stepping onto the court and taking the initiative, winning four straight games as the crowd exploded to rally behind her.
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Serving at 3-5, Stearns saved four match points, during a final game that lasted more than 12 minutes, playing some of her best tennis with her back against the wall. But Williams buckled down and climbed out of a 0-30 hole in the next game. An ace got her back even. A big serve that Stearns returned long got her yet another match point that she frittered away with a double fault.
Three points later, she had another shot to seal it. One more big serve that Stearns sent into the net and the night was hers. The arms rose in the air at her 819th career victory, and soon she began spinning in the center of the court.
“Venus, Venus, Venus,” Rennae Stubbs said to her during the on-court interview.
“We were living and dying together,” she said to the crowd.
Williams isn’t the oldest woman to win a WTA Tour match. Martina Navratilova won at 47 in in 2004. Still, beating No. 35 at 45 — not bad.
“It’s just about putting it all together,” she said. “I wanted to play a good match and win the match.”
Williams said her fiance, Italian film star Andrea Preti, encouraged her to try to come back. It was hard but worth it.
She next faces Magdalena Frech of Poland.
(Photo: Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)
Matthew Futterman is an award-winning veteran sports journalist and the author of two books, “Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed” and “Players: How Sports Became a Business.”Before coming to The Athletic in 2023, he worked for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Star-Ledger of New Jersey and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He is currently writing a book about tennis, “The Cruelest Game: Agony, Ecstasy and Near Death Experiences on the Pro Tennis Tour,” to be published by Doubleday in 2026. Follow Matthew on Twitter @mattfutterman

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