Venus Williams and Martina Navratilova have highlighted how tennis players can still continue competing into their forties.
Williams stunned Peyton Stearns in her return to the WTA Tour at the Washington Open, with the 45-year-old winning her first singles match in nearly two years.
There has been a huge reaction to this victory for the American, with Williams receiving messages from Naomi Osaka and Billie Jean King.
While Williams’ victory is unprecedented, Navratilova stands ahead of her in the record books in this statistic.
Photo by Clive Rose/Getty ImagesCatalina Castano: The WTA player who Martina Navratilova beat to win her final ever match at Wimbledon
After initially retiring from singles in 1994, the year Navratilova lost in the Wimbledon final, she began to play some matches again from 2002, something she claimed was to help sharpen her doubles skills.
However, ahead of Wimbledon in 2004, the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion was the world number 700 and had not won a main tour singles match in two years.
Despite playing very limited singles competition, nine-time Wimbledon champion Navratilova was granted a wildcard into the main draw.
This would mark her first singles appearance at the grass court major since losing that 1994 final, with Navratilova 47 years old at the time of Wimbledon in 2004.
Navratilova’s first round opponent was Colombian Catalina Castaño, who was the world number 102 at the time and had never won a match at Wimbledon before.
Experience showed on this occasion, as Navratilova emphatically beat Castaño, 6-0 6-1, to become the oldest player ever to win a WTA level match at 47 years old.
Navratilova would not win another singles match again, with the last of her career coming at the WTA tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in June 2005.
While Castaño, who is still only 46 years old in 2025, ended her career without ever winning a singles match at Wimbledon.
Michael Stich called Martina Navratilova’s win ‘a terrible thing for women’s tennis’
While this was a historic moment for Wimbledon and women’s tennis, not everyone thought it was a good thing.
One of those was 1991 Wimbledon champion Michael Stich, who claimed that Navratilova winning matches at 47 years old showed there was ‘no depth in the game’.
“If Martina does go through to the third or fourth round of the championships, then I think it would be terrible for the women’s game,” Stich told media outlets.
“The girl she beat in the first round should just pack up her racket and go home. To lose to Martina – even on grass – 6-1, 6-0 is a terrible thing for women’s tennis.
“The result shows there is no depth in the game at all and that you have [only] four or five girls at the top who could win the event.”
Photo by Suzy Spieldenner/Bongarts/Getty Images
Navratilova would subsequently lose her next, and what turned out to be final, singles match at Wimbledon.
In the press conference after her defeat to Gisela Dulko, Navratilova directly responded to Stich by calling him a ‘one-hit wonder’.
“I knew I could win a few matches,” said Navratilova. “You know, but… That’s not a knock on women’s tennis. I get really upset when I see, you know, one-hit wonder, one-Slam wonder Michael Stich criticizing the depth in women’s tennis, that I won my first-round match so easily.
“How many games did [Roger] Federer lose today in the second-round match? You know, [Goran] Ivanisevic comes, wins two matches. He hasn’t played for a few years. I’m not knocking the depth in men’s tennis but they’re quick to knock the depth of women’s tennis. Look at how I hit the ball, not at the result. Not at the fact that I’m 47. But how do I play.”
While she was eliminated from the singles event, Navratilova would go on to reach the semifinals of the women’s doubles event and quarterfinals of the mixed tournament.
Navratilova would officially retire from tennis in 2006, after winning the US Open mixed doubles title alongside Bob Bryan.