NEW YORK (AP) — Venus Williams will compete in women’s doubles at 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 appearing at her first Grand Slam tournament in two years after making a comeback to pro tennis in July following 16 months away from the tour.
She competed in mixed doubles last week, then in singles on Monday night — both also via wild-card invitations from the U.S. Tennis Association.
Williams exited in the first round each time, but was thrilled to be back out on court after dealing with injuries and illness. She had surgery for uterine fibroids last year, and spoke Monday following her three-set exit in singles against 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova about being relieved to be pain-free.
“Oh, what did I prove to myself?” Williams said, repeating part of a reporter’s question at her postmatch news conference. “I think for me, getting back on the court was about giving myself a chance to play more healthy. When you play unhealthy, it’s in your mind. It’s not just how you feel. You get stuck in your mind, too. So it was nice to be freer.”
She was the oldest person to play singles at the U.S. Open since 1981, and the spectators loved every moment of it, greeting her with camera phones held aloft, shouting “Let’s go, Venus!” during the match and ushering her off the Arthur Ashe Stadium court with a standing ovation.
In addition to her seven Grand Slam singles trophies, Williams owns 14 major titles in women’s doubles, all with her younger sister, Serena, as her partner. Two of those came in New York, in 1999 and 2009.
They last played together at the U.S. Open in 2022, the year Serena played her final 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 in the first round.
Fernandez lost to Emma Raducanu in the U.S. Open singles final four years ago.
Williams hadn’t played an official match anywhere since the Miami Open in March 2024 until she surprisingly accepted a wild card to the hard-court tournament in Washington last month. She entered the singles and doubles events there, winning one match in each bracket.
This U.S. Open is her first major tournament since she played at Flushing Meadows in 2023.
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