{"id":87061,"date":"2025-07-23T22:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/87061\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T22:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:37:08","slug":"venus-williams-win-at-age-45-resonates-for-several-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/87061\/","title":{"rendered":"Venus Williams’ win at age 45 resonates for several reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 There are plenty of reasons why this particular victory by Venus Williams<\/a> in this particular tennis match<\/a> \u2014 just one of hundreds \u2014 resonated with so many folks.<\/p>\n

That she\u2019s 45, for one thing. Only one woman, Martina Navratilova, ever has won a tour-level singles match while older; her last victory came at 47 in 2004.<\/p>\n

That Williams hadn\u2019t entered a tournament<\/a> anywhere in 16 months.<\/p>\n

That she needed surgery for uterine fibroids.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: A historic win by 45-year-old Venus Williams resonates and shows there are no limits for excellence\n <\/p>\n

A tennis icon has become the oldest woman to win on the WTA Tour in 21 years. Correspondent Gethin Coolbaugh reports.<\/p>\n

And when asked Tuesday night after beating her 23-year-old opponent, Peyton Stearns<\/a>, 6-3, 6-4 at the DC Open what message others might take away from that performance and that result, Williams was quick to provide an answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no limits for excellence. It\u2019s all about what\u2019s in your head and how much you\u2019re able to put into it. If you put in the work mentally, physically, and emotionally, then you can have the result,\u201d said Williams, who will face 27-year-old Magdalena Frech on Thursday. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how many times you fall down. Doesn\u2019t matter how many times you get sick or get hurt or whatever it is. If you continue to believe and put in the work, there is an opportunity, there is space, for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams \u2014 who received a wild-card invitation on Wednesday for next month\u2019s Cincinnati Open<\/a> \u2014 has been winning at tennis for decades. Her pro debut came when she was 14. Her first Grand Slam title<\/a> came at Wimbledon in 2000, less than a month after her 20th birthday. <\/p>\n

She accumulated four major singles trophies before Stearns was born and eventually wound up with seven, five at Wimbledon and two at the U.S. Open, plus another 14 in women\u2019s doubles \u2014 all with her sister Serena \u2014 and two in mixed doubles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have so much respect for her to come back here and play, win or lose. That takes a lot of guts to step back onto court, especially with what she\u2019s done for the sport,\u201d said Stearns, who is ranked 35th and won NCAA singles and team titles at the University of Texas. \u201cYou have a lot behind you. You have accomplished a lot. And there is a lot of pressure on her and to kind of upkeep that at this age. So massive credit to her for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were challenges along the way for Williams, none more public than the diagnosis in 2011 of Sj\u00f6gren\u2019s syndrome, an energy-sapping auto-immune disease that can cause joint pain.<\/p>\n

More recent was the pain from fibroids \u2014 noncancerous growths \u2014 and shortly before the DC Open, Williams said: \u201cWhere I am at this year is so much different (from) where I was at last year. It\u2019s night and day, being able to be here and prepare for the tournament as opposed to preparing for surgery.\u201d <\/p>\n

The event in the nation\u2019s capital is her first competition in more than a year. Williams also entered in doubles with Hailey Baptiste, and they won their first-round match Monday before losing on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As thrilled as the spectators \u2014 \u201cWho I love, and they love me,\u201d Williams said \u2014 were to be able to watch, and pull, for her, other players were rather excited about it, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI commend her so much for being out here,\u201d said Taylor Townsend.<\/p>\n

Naomi Osaka\u2019s take: \u201cShe\u2019s, like, the queen. There\u2019s a royal air around her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s one of the best athletes of all time,\u201d Frances Tiafoe said. \u201cHer and her sister, they\u2019re not only great for the women\u2019s game, not only great for women\u2019s sports, but they are so iconic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, there were some on social media who wondered whether it made sense for the tournament to award a wild-card entry to Williams instead of an up-and-coming player.<\/p>\n

DC Open chairman Mark Ein said it took him about two seconds to respond \u201cOf course\u201d when Williams\u2019 representative reached out in April to ask whether a spot in the field might be a possibility.<\/p>\n

A reporter wanted to know Tuesday whether Williams took any satisfaction from proving doubters wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, because I\u2019m not here for anyone else except for me. And I also have nothing to prove. Zip. Zero. I\u2019m here for me, because I want to be here,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd proving anyone wrong or thinking about anyone has never gotten me a win and has never gotten me a loss.\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 There are plenty of reasons why this particular victory by Venus Williams in this particular…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":87062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[235,12785,84,27762,32353,18826,8352,58558,50638,6115,11061,62,47641,15678,1464,67,132,68,46604],"class_list":{"0":"post-87061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-dc-wire","10":"tag-district-of-columbia","11":"tag-frances-tiafoe","12":"tag-hailey-baptiste","13":"tag-howard-fendrich","14":"tag-magdalena-frech","15":"tag-mark-ein","16":"tag-martina-navratilova","17":"tag-naomi-osaka","18":"tag-peyton-stearns","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-surgery","21":"tag-taylor-townsend","22":"tag-tennis","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-venus-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87061","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=87061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}