Washington (AP) – Venus Williams the second oldest woman who won a singles match at Tour level in professional tennis, who delivered some of her well-known serve and foundations at the age of 45 while he defeated Peyton Stearns-22 years her junior-with a 6-3, 6-4 score on the score DC Open On Tuesday evening.
This was the first singles victory for Williams in almost two years. The only older woman who won a competition was Martina Navratilova on 47 in 2004.
The former No. 1-ranging Williams had not played any singles in an official match in Miami since March 2024, where they miss time during an operation to remove uterine fibromas. Since August 2023 she had not won in Singles in Cincinnati. Until this week she was mentioned by the WTA tour as ‘inactive’.
“It’s not easy,” said Williams, “after all this time (come back) and play the perfect match.”
But supported by a crowd that was clear to see and support, her at the Hardcourt tournament in the capital of the country, Williams showed a glimpse of the talent she possessed and the skills she showed while she earned all her Grand Slam titles: Seven in Singles, 14 in Ladies Dubels-Al with Jongere Zuster and Two in Jongere Zuster and Two in Jongere Zuster and Two in Jongere Zuster and Two in Mongers and Two-Als.
“I wanted to play a good game,” she told the fans, and then added a sentence who rudged rudally: “And won the game.”
In the second match on Tuesday, for example, Williams hit a return winner to start things and then delivered a few other major reactions to Break Stearns, a 23-year-old who won singles and team NCAA titles at the University of Texas and is currently in 35th place.
In the next match, Williams sprinted forward to reach a drop -shot and answered with a winner. Soon she led 4-2 and then closed that set.
She was accompanied by chests of cheers. The first arrived when Williams arrived in the DC Open, an arena with 7,000 seats that is more than twice as large as where she was the day earlier for her double extraction. Another came when she ran from the sidelines to the center of the court for the formality of the Muntworp. The sound really reached a crescendo when Williams Aces started to hit – with 110 km / h and faster – as they used to.
There were also times when Williams – who said that her fiancé was in the stands – looked as if it had been as long as she actually had been competing, even in the opening match, when she was broken in this way in this way: Forehand, Forehand in the net, long -handed long.
At the end, Williams cost a little extra effort to exclude things. She kept holding match points and did not continue to convert. But in the end, with her sixth chance, Williams was powered in a 112 km / h that stearns returned to the net. That was it: William’s smiled widely, raised a fist and jogged to shake hands, then performed her usual post-win pirouette-and-wave.
She went on to a second round matchup against no. 5 Seed Magdalena Frech, a 27-year-old from Poland.
In other promotion Tuesday, Emma Raducanu Nr. 7 Seed Marta Kostyuk handed a sixth consecutive loss by eliminating her 7-6 (4), 6-4. That set up a matchup between Raducanu and four-time large champion Naomi Osaka, who was a 6-2, 7-5 winner against Yulia Putintseva.
Two top lords leave: Cam Norrie defeated No. 2 Lorenzo Musetti 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and no. 3 Holger Rune withdrew from the tournament due to a back injury. No. 4 Seed Ben Shelton defeated Mackie McDonald 6-3, 6-4.
