‘It’s in my DNA’: undimmed Venus Williams returns to US Open at 45
Venus Williams will take the court on Monday night for her record-extending 25th US Open singles appearance, the Here We Go Again meme brought to life, quite literally as enduring a part of the Flushing Meadows iconography as Arthur Ashe Stadium itself. At 45, two years removed from her last grand slam match and ranked No 610 in the world, she will face Karolína Muchová, the Czech 11th seed and 2023 French Open runner-up who has twice reached the semi-finals in New York.
If the scale of the task before her is formidable, so too is the symbolism of her presence. Williams is the oldest singles competitor at America’s national championship since Renée Richards 44 years ago. She made her debut here as a 17-year-old in 1997 – the same year Ashe was completed and replaced Armstrong as the tournament’s main stadium – becoming the first unseeded player in the Open era to reach the final before losing to Martina Hingis. Twenty-eight years later, she returns with her place in history assured but her taste for the fight undiminished.
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She’s the winner of seven grand slam singles titles – five at Wimbledon, two at the US Open – to go with 14 doubles crowns alongside her younger sister. She has been world No 1 in singles and doubles, won four Olympic gold medals and brought in roughly $ 43m in prize money with countless more from endorsements and outside endeavors. Given her preposterous longevity and pan-cultural resonance, it would not be hyperbolic to call her one of the five most famous active sportspeople on the planet. Nothing left to prove came and went sometime during the George W Bush years.
Yet here she is again, after a 16-month hiatus that included surgery for uterine fibroids and long spells of doubt. She returned in July at the Washington Open where she drew overflow crowds that included NBA star Kevin Durant and knocked off Peyton Stearns, the world No 35. It offered a flicker of the old fire, a reminder that her classic first-strike game – big serve, flat drives, all-court aggression – still has teeth.
Off the court, the comeback has coincided with a new chapter in her personal life. Williams confirmed last month that she is engaged to the Italian actor-producer Andrea Preti, crediting him with encouraging her through the grind of training and recovery. “My fiancé is here and he really encouraged me to keep playing,” she said after the win over Stearns, which made her the oldest player to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova in 2004. “There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill. … He encouraged me to get through this and it’s wonderful to be here.”
The couple had kept their relationship largely private until recently, but their public appearances together – from boating on the Amalfi Coast to Milan Fashion Week earlier this year – added a different kind of spotlight to Williams’s return. For a player who once deftly volleyed questions about settling down, it has marked a shift in tone.
For much of the past two years many assumed Venus had quiet-quit from the tour. Serena’s high-profile farewell in Vogue in 2022, followed by the exits of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova, seemed the bookend to an era. But Venus, despite quipping last month that she’d only come back to tennis for the health insurance, never embraced that narrative. “I think I’ll always play tennis,” she said on Saturday. “It’s in my DNA. So it doesn’t matter if it’s now or 30 years from now … tennis will always be one of the most important parts of my life.”
Even by the standards of sport’s greatest methuselahs – think Jaromir Jagr, Bernard Hopkins, Tom Brady – Williams is built different. None of the 609 players above her in the rankings have made it to their 40s yet, much less 45. And only a small fraction of them were even alive when Williams made her professional debut at the Bank of the West Classic back in 1994, when Pulp Fiction was in theaters and Boyz II Men ruled the US charts.
That sense of permanence helps explain why she continues. “I haven’t thought about what people would take away from it,” she said. “I just mostly think about what I would get from it.”
She has more than earned the right. Since bursting through the gates of a lily-white sport alongside her sister, Williams has borne the twin burdens of racism and sexism with unflinching grace. She led the campaign for equal prize money at Wimbledon and Roland Garros. She inspired a generation of Black American players, including Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens, Taylor Townsend and Hailey Baptiste.
Her presence this week also coincides with the 75th anniversary of Althea Gibson’s debut at the US national championships, another reminder of the lineage she extends. “Althea accomplished so much, and a lot of it has not been given the credit it deserves,” Williams said. “The most important part is just shining light on it and acknowledging that.”
Peers have been quick to stress her wider importance over the past few days. “She’s one of the best athletes of all time,” said Frances Tiafoe. “Her and her sister, they’re not only great for the women’s game, not only great for women’s sports, but they are so iconic.” Naomi Osaka added: “I don’t really like how every headline mentions her age … it’s more the broader significance, how much of a legend she is.”
It is easy to romanticize her return, but the margins are unforgiving. Since improbably reaching the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals in 2017, then re-establishing herself as a fixture in the WTA’s top 10 during her age-38 season, her activity and results have tapered off. She has not won a match at the US Open since 2019. Wildcard invitations into the main draw, including the one that brought her here, inevitably provoke debate about whether they should go to younger players. And her opponent Muchová, with her variety and shot-making intelligence, is precisely the kind of player who punishes rust. A win, frankly, would qualify as a major upset.
Williams is realistic about those stakes, but her humor remains as sharp as her fashion sense. “Hit it too hard, it goes out,” she said when asked to assess her current form. “So I’m going to try to hit less hard so it goes in. But the good news is I’m having fun controlling the points. It’s a great game style for me.”
Among the staunchest defenders of USTA’s decision to award Williams a wildcard has been the retired American star Andy Roddick, who took the critics to task after Friday’s draw was revealed.
“I don’t care if she goes out and doesn’t win a single game, we should be full of gratitude for having had Venus Williams in our game,” the 2003 US Open champion said on his podcast. “[The critics say] they are taking it away from someone who’s deserving. If you are deserving, you don’t need a wildcard. Simply, you have qualified on your own ranking.
“It’s not an entitlement, it’s a gift. You’re telling me as a tennis tournament, that Venus Williams is not deserving as a gift from the US Open? Shut up, get out of here. She has been a gift to us, it’s not the other way around.”
As a PlayStation-era carryover in a PS5 world, Williams’s stated goals are less about winning majors than about process, self-belief and the thrill of competing. “I want to be my best, and that’s the expectation I have for myself,” she said. “I haven’t played as much as the other players, so it’s a different challenge. I’m just trying to have fun, stay relaxed, and be my personal best.”
Those sentiments echoed her remarks from DC last month: “There are no limits for excellence. It’s all about what’s in your head and how much you’re able to put into it. If you put in the work mentally, physically and emotionally, then you can have the result. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down. Doesn’t matter how many times you get sick or get hurt or whatever it is. If you continue to believe and put in the work, there is space for you.”
Whether this is her farewell to Flushing Meadows or merely another chapter in her long goodbye, Williams has no interest in scripting ahead. She will not trail it in a glossy magazine, nor invite anyone else to interpret it for her. When the time comes, she may simply slip through the side door, like another New York icon: Excuse me while I disappear.
For now she has at least one more night on Ashe, one more chance to swing freely under the lights of her sport’s largest stage. “Super thrilling to be back,” she said. “It does not get old. It just gets more exciting.”
