Anyone who watched Venus Williams compete on the WTA Tour over the past three decades had to come away with at least one immutable truth.
She is a fighter.
Many of the tennis pundits and even Venus’ most ardent supporters had to believe that the 2024 Miami Open would be her final hurrah. Her latest — and most serious health issues — surely would lead the seven-time Grand Slam champion to put the racquets in the closet.
But not so fast. Williams earned a wild-card entry to the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. last month and knocked off 35th-ranked Peyton Stearns. Williams, 45, became the oldest player to earn a WTA singles victory since Martina Navratilova won a match at Wimbledon in 2004 as a 47-year-old.
She would lose in the next round to Magdalena Frech, but proved to herself that 45 is just a number.
“There’s one thing that I know: You’re never too young or too old to win or lose,” Williams said as she prepares to compete in the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati. “Winning and losing knows no age. All that matters is that I’m prepared and ready. And the longer I play, the more I get into it, the more I train, the better I get.”
One year ago, Williams, who was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome in 2011, fought a more serious health battle. She underwent surgery to remove fibroids and a large focal adenomyoma that was embedded in the muscle of her uterus.
She posted this on Instagram recently: “I was told I was inoperable. I was told I could bleed to death on the table. I was told to get a surrogate and forget the hope to carry my own children. I was misdiagnosed. I went untreated for years and years and years. It’s so important to advocate for your health! I suffered from severe anemia, debilitating pain, excessive bleeding and abnormally frequent menstrual cycles for many years. It affected my tennis and the trajectory of my career.
I told my story so other women don’t have to go through this and so they can get better sooner.”
The road to recovery was slow, but returning to the courts never left her thoughts.
“At the end of the day, you have to live your life on your own terms,” Williams said, as she prepares for an opening-round match against Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. “Your terms should be yours. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says or what anyone else thinks. If you get to live life on your own terms, that’s a life well-lived, and I firmly believe in that.
“And I do what I do because I want to live life the way I want to, unapologetically, with no regrets and on my terms. … Make your terms and don’t surrender.”
After Cincinnati, Venus will compete in the 2025 US Open, partnering with Reilly Opelka in the new mixed doubles format and, hopefully, earning a wild-card entry into singles competition.
Will that be Venus’ final tennis chapter? Probably not. Could she compete again at age 46 in 2026?
“I don’t think you should ever rule me out,” she said.
–Field Level Media
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