Williams defies age, time in her successful return at D.C. Open

Cher once asked if she could turn back time. 

At the D.C. Open this week, Venus Williams has, indeed, found a way.

Her return, at age 45, to the sport she once ruled at the turn of the century is not a prideful pursuit.  The seven-time Grand Slam champion is — still — only and purely driven by passion.

“I’m not here for anyone else except for me, and I also have nothing to prove. Zip, zero,” Williams said. “I’m here for me because I want to be here. And proving anyone wrong or thinking about anyone has never gotten me a win and has never gotten me a loss.”

On Tuesday night in Rock Creek Park, in her first singles match since a March 2024 loss to Diana Shnaider at the Miami Open, Williams delivered one of the most improbable sports results of the year: a 6-3, 6-4 win over fellow American Peyton Stearns.

“I mean, the meaning of this win — there is a lot of work that goes into this kind of preparation,” Williams said after her first win in nearly two years. “I think each week that I was training, I was, like, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t know if I’m good enough yet.’”

More than good enough, Williams simply put on a vintage performance. Her forehands cracked with power and placement from the get go. Movement along the baseline and chasing down balls was not an issue. And after losing the opening game of the match on her serve at love, that weapon came back to her as play continued, to the tune of nine aces.

“There would be weeks where I would leap forward, and there would be two weeks where I was, like, ‘Oh, God, it’s not happening.’ Even the week leading up,” she said. “I think a lot of this for me is being able to come back and try to play at a level, to play healthy, which I didn’t have the opportunity to do.”

Before serving it out to become the second-oldest winner ever on the WTA Tour behind only fellow icon Martina Navratilova, Williams even had four match points in the penultimate game on Stearns’ serve. Stearns, 22 years her junior, was often the one looking confused and out of breath.

“I’m just trying to figure out how many wins will it take before I’m off COBRA,” joked Williams, who will next play No. 5 Magdalena Frech of Poland on Thursday after her and D.C. native Hailey Baptiste were eliminated in the doubles quarterfinals Wednesday. “I haven’t asked the WTA yet, but I gotta just keep winning until finally my insurance kicks back in.”

Williams is playing in D.C. on a wild card from tournament director Mark Ein, who’s offered her the opportunity to play over the last few years but was only taken up on it this year. Ein’s gesture has been paid forward by the Cincinnati Open, which announced Wednesday that Williams will receive an entry into its draw next month.

“I think more than anything, it’s just about love, right? If you have enough love for it, then you’ll put in the effort, and then you’ll find that little extra little bit at the end because I love it so much,” Williams said.

In the men’s draw Wednesday, top seed Taylor Fritz advanced easily in his round of 32 match, 6-3, 6-2, over Aleksandar Vukic in a tidy 59 minutes. The American and world No. 4 allowed only a single, unconverted break opportunity while clocking 28 winners in the victory. He’ll next face Italian Matteo Arnaldi, who advanced in straights.

“I feel like I played pretty well. I’m super happy with how I played,” Fritz said. “It was a quick turnaround. I didn’t get a ton of training in before coming here from my time at Wimbledon. First couple of days practicing here was pretty rough, and given that, yeah, I’m so happy with how I played.”

Also on Stadium Court, No. 8 seed Daniil Medvedev mounted a comeback to beat American Reilly Opelka, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1. Opelka committed 30 more unforced errors, 51 to 21, as Medvedev won for the first time in a month after losing his opening match at Wimbledon.

“Of course when you play good in Wimbledon, there is — no, it’s tougher to come back here, and that’s why I didn’t come back since how many years,” said Medvedev, playing in the District since he was a semifinalist in 2019.  “First-round [Wimbledon] exit was an easy choice to come to Washington, and I’m happy I can play well here.”

Medevev will next face qualifier Yibing Wu, who won his fourth match in five days with a three-set victory over Alexei Popyrin.