Venus Williams fields questions throughout a press convention at USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart on August 23, 2025 in New York Metropolis. Maddie Meyer/Getty Photographs/AFP
Venus Williams stated Saturday she is relishing the prospect of her record-extending twenty fifth US Open look, saying the expertise of taking part in in her dwelling Grand Slam by no means will get outdated.
The 45-year-old US tennis icon is poised to make what could possibly be her farewell singles look at Flushing Meadows on Monday, the place she is going to face eleventh seed Karolina Muchova within the first spherical.
READ: Venus Williams receives wild card for US Open singles
“Tremendous thrilling to be again,” stated Williams, who’s competing in New York after being handed a wild card by organisers along with her world rating now standing at 610th.
“It doesn’t get outdated; it simply will get extra thrilling,” she informed reporters.
Williams solely returned to tennis in July following a 16-month absence from the game, successful her opening match on the Washington Open earlier than exiting within the second spherical.
READ: Venus Williams again in tennis, needs Serena would be a part of the enjoyable
This yr’s look comes some 28 years after she first graced the US Open as a 17-year-old in 1997, embarking on a fairytale run to the ultimate the place she misplaced to Martina Hingis.
Following that dazzling debut, Williams would go on to forge a legacy as one of many biggest girls’s gamers in historical past, successful seven Grand Slam singles titles — two US Opens, 5 Wimbledons — and 14 Grand Slam doubles titles alongside sister Serena.
Williams stated Saturday that regardless of the litany of achievements over a profession that has straddled 4 totally different many years, her ardour for tennis remained undiminished.
“I like my job,” Williams informed reporters. “So there’s the enjoyment proper there.”
Requested what folks might take away from her look, she replied: “I haven’t considered what folks would take away from it. I simply principally take into consideration what I might get from it.”
Williams in the meantime, stated she is going to take a relaxed strategy into her twenty fifth US Open look.
“I need to be my finest, and that’s the expectation I’ve for myself, to get the perfect out of me. And that’s all any participant can ask for,” she stated.
“I haven’t performed as a lot as the opposite gamers, so it’s a special problem … I’m simply making an attempt to have enjoyable, keep relaxed, and be my private finest.”
Whereas Williams’ skilled profession could also be drawing to an in depth, the US veteran says she expects to nonetheless be swinging a racquet properly into outdated age.
“I feel I’ll at all times play tennis. It’s in my DNA. So it doesn’t matter if it’s now or 30 years from now,” Williams stated.
“God prepared, I’ll be right here, we’ll all be right here, we’ll all be hitting balls. Possibly I’ll come again to look at. Possibly I’ll be saying I did it higher, and it gained’t be true.
“However in any case, tennis will at all times be one of the essential components of my life.”
Williams’ participation additionally falls on the seventy fifth anniversary of African-American trailblazer Althea Gibson’s first look on the US nationwide tennis championship in 1950.
“I feel an important half is that we’re celebrating it and recognizing it, as a result of Althea achieved a lot, and plenty of it has not been given the credit score it deserves and the eye and the reward,” Williams stated.
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“I feel that’s an important half to me, simply shining mild on it and seeing, simply acknowledging that.”
