WASHINGTON – Venus Williams has become the second oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match in professional tennis, beating the familiar big serve and ground stroke at 45 at the age of 45, while scoring 6-3, 6-4 at the DC Open on Tuesday night.
This was Williams’ first singles victory in almost two years. The only older woman to win the match was Martinana Bratilova, 47, at Wimbledon in 2004.
Former No. 1 rank Williams didn’t play a single in his official Miami match in March 2024, but missed time during surgery to remove his uterine fibroids. She had not won singles in Cincinnati since August 2023. Until this week, she was listed as “inactive” by the WTA Tour.
“That’s not easy,” Williams said.
However, Williams gave a glimpse of the talent she has and the skills she has shown, supported by the crowds that were clearly there to see and support her at the country’s capital’s hard court tournament.
“I wanted to have a good match,” she told fans before adding a phrase that portrayed gratitude: “And then we won the match.”
For example, in his second match on Tuesday, Williams hit the return winner to get things started, then brought some big responses to the Break Stearns, 23, who won the singles and team NCAA title at the University of Texas and currently ranked No. 35.
In the next game, Williams sprinted forward to reach the drop shot, replied the winner. Soon, she led 4-2 and closed the set.
She was accompanied by a chorus of cheers. First arrived when Williams went out to the main stadium at the DC Open. This is a 7,000-seat arena, more than twice as much as she was in for her doubles victory a day ago. Another came when she walked from the sideline to the centre of the courthouse for the form of a coin toss. The noise really reached the crescendo when Williams began slamming the ace (over 110 mph) as she used to.
Also, Williams, who said his fiancé was in the stands, seemed as long as she actually competed when she broke in Love like this, including the opening game.
Finally, Williams put in a bit of extra effort to close things down. She continued to hold match points and failed to convert them. But ultimately, on her sixth chance, Williams had a 112 mph serve and Stearns returned to the net. That was it: Williams smiled as loudly as he could, raised his fist, jogged into the net and waved before playing her conventional postwind pirouette and waves.
She advanced to the second round match against 27-year-old No. 5 seed Magdalena Frecc from Poland.
ESPN research and Associated Press contributed to this report.