{"id":79947,"date":"2025-07-21T06:24:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T06:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/79947\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T06:24:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T06:24:15","slug":"venus-williams-is-back-in-tennis-and-wishes-serena-would-come-out-of-retirement-to-join-the-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/79947\/","title":{"rendered":"Venus Williams is back in tennis and wishes Serena would come out of retirement to join the fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Venus Williams is back on the tennis scene, ready to compete for the first time in more than a year, and while she smiled or laughed frequently Sunday while discussing her return at the DC Open<\/a>, there was something that would make her even happier: if her younger sister Serena<\/a> were along for the ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep saying to my team: The only thing that would make this better is if she was here. Like, we always did everything together, so of course I miss her,\u201d Venus said when asked about a recent video on social media that showed Serena swinging a racket. \u201cBut if she comes back, I\u2019m sure she\u2019ll let y\u2019all know.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That, of course, was said with a wide grin. Serena, 43, hasn’t played since the 2022 U.S. Open<\/a>, when she declared she was \u201cevolving\u201d away from the sport she dominated for stretches on the way to 23 Grand Slam singles titles<\/a> and an additional 14 in doubles with Venus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what she\u2019s going to do. I don\u2019t ask those questions,” Venus said a day before the hard-court tournament in the nation’s capital begins. “I think we always hit the ball, because that\u2019s who we are. We\u2019re always hitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it was during a recent practice session of hers that Serena showed up and joined in for about 15 or 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe can take six months off and she clocks it clean,\u201d Venus said. \u201cYou can\u2019t teach that kind of talent. She\u2019s just so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

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They both were the best around at one point.<\/p>\n

Both reached No. 1 in the rankings. Venus, who turned 45 last month, won seven major singles championships, two at the U.S. Open and five at Wimbledon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her last tournament was in March 2024 at the Miami Open, where she exited in the first round. It’s been so long that the official WTA Tour website lists her as \u201cinactive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very special for me to come back and play tennis,\u201d Venus said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a surprise for the fans \u2014 and a surprise in general, as I hold my cards tight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure does.<\/p>\n

It came as a bit of a shock to the tennis world when her appearance in Washington via a wild-card invitation was announced a week ago.<\/p>\n

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Her team had reached out to DC Open chairman Mark Ein via text in April to gauge whether he’d be open to having Venus at an event she last entered in 2022. He said he needed two seconds to reply: \u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s such an icon of the sport \u2014 and, importantly, both on and off the court,\u201d Ein said in an interview. \u201cSo anytime you can have her engaged and have the spotlight on her and everything she\u2019s done and continues to do, it\u2019s hugely positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

What did she miss the most while away from the tour?<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the times that I had and, of course, the adrenaline, all those things,\u201d Venus said. \u201cJust the pure fun of playing the game, the fun of the challenge, overcoming \u2014 when you play, you overcome so many challenges: your opponents, the conditions, a lot of times you have to overcome yourself. Those things are very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When asked why she’s getting back on court, Venus offered a simple response: \u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n

As for whether this is a one-stop tour or she plans to play elsewhere, she wasn’t prepared to say much.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just here for now, and who knows?\u201d Venus said. \u201cMaybe there\u2019s more. … But at the moment, I\u2019m focused just on this. I haven\u2019t played in a year. There is no doubt I can play tennis, but obviously coming back to play matches, it takes time to get in the swing of things. I definitely feel I\u2019ll play well. I\u2019m still the same player. I\u2019m a big hitter. I hit big. This is my brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Howard Fendrich has been the AP\u2019s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/howard-fendrich<\/a>. More AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Venus Williams is back on the tennis scene, ready to compete for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":79948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[62,1464,67,132,68,46604],"class_list":{"0":"post-79947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-venus-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114889796040903921","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}