{"id":90259,"date":"2025-07-25T02:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T02:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/90259\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T02:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T02:49:11","slug":"venus-williams-loses-to-magdalena-french-in-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/90259\/","title":{"rendered":"Venus Williams loses to Magdalena French in Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When Venus Williams\u2019<\/a> bid for her first winning streak since 2019 ended with one last forehand that landed long, the spectators at the D.C. Open\u2019s<\/a> main stadium Thursday night gave her a standing ovation. She responded with a smile and the sort of pirouette and wave she usually reserves for celebrating wins.<\/p>\n

Williams hadn\u2019t competed anywhere in more than a year, and so even if this tournament was over for her after a 6-2, 6-2 loss to 24th-ranked Magdalena Frech in the second round, just being back out there was big for the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion \u2014 and her many fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I had so much fun. Definitely not the result I wanted, but still a learning experience. The part about sport (and) life is that you never stop learning,\u201d the 45-year-old Williams said. \u201cI got to play a lot of matches here and that definitely was a plus. The fans in D.C. are just epic. I couldn\u2019t have been happier with my first week back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her victory in the first round<\/a> Tuesday against 35th-ranked Peyton Stearns made Williams the oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova was 47 in 2004.<\/p>\n

That was Williams\u2019 first win in singles since 2023, and she joked afterward that she was motivated to succeed because she wanted to be able to renew her access to the WTA\u2019s health insurance plan after being inactive for so long.<\/p>\n

This hard-court tournament was the first event for Williams since March 2024<\/a>; she missed time because of surgery for uterine fibroids.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth care is so important \u2014 and access to health care and being able to see the right and the best doctors for whatever you\u2019re going through,\u201d Williams said. \u201cObviously it\u2019s a fun and funny moment, but it\u2019s an issue that people are dealing with, so it is serious.\u201d <\/p>\n

She won a doubles match in Washington, too, and playing a total of four matches \u2014 two each in singles and doubles \u2014 across four days finally caught up to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I ran out of gas today, unfortunately,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI tried to find the energy, and I didn\u2019t find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time Williams won at least two matches in a row was in August 2019, at the Cincinnati Open, where she put together three consecutive victories before losing to Madison Keys in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Williams began well against Frech, going up 2-1. But from there, Frech claimed seven straight games to own the first set and lead 2-0 in the second.<\/p>\n

Frech is a 27-year-old from Poland whose best Grand Slam showing was a run to the fourth round at the 2024 Australian Open before losing to Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even imagine how she pushes herself,\u201d Frech said about Williams. \u201cIt\u2019s really amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show under the lights on this evening was all about Williams, whose greeting was much louder when she walked out on court toting a green exercise band. Every time Williams unfurled one of her booming groundstrokes \u2014 and make no mistake, she still can hit the ball hard \u2014 the crowd in the main stadium let out a roar.<\/p>\n

The problem for Williams: She frequently was unable to properly calibrate those shots, including when she sailed a forehand way out after rushing forward to get to a short ball off Frech\u2019s racket. That gave Frech a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n

Williams would drop her head or slump her shoulders after some misses, and she had 14 unforced errors in the opening set, more than twice as many as Frech. Fans often responded with an \u201cAwwww\u201d right away, before trying to give Williams a boost by yelling support.<\/p>\n

There were clap-accompanied chants of \u201cVenus!\u201d when she broke to get within 4-2 in that set. But Williams didn\u2019t get another game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many learnings from here. I know exactly what I need to work on, where I can improve,\u201d said Williams, who also accepted a wild-card invitation to play in the Cincinnati Open next month. \u201cThe good news is I\u2019m always in control of the point. The important part is to put the ball in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other action Thursday, top-seeded Jessica Pegula lost to 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, and Emma Raducanu<\/a> dominated her first career matchup against Naomi Osaka<\/a>, winning the showdown between past U.S. Open champions 6-4, 6-2.<\/p>\n

Seeded men advancing included No. 1 Taylor Fritz, No. 4 Ben Shelton, No. 6 Frances Tiafoe, No. 7 Alex de Minaur, No. 8 Daniil Medvedev, No. 12 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and No. 14 Brandon Nakashima.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When Venus Williams\u2019 bid for her first winning streak since 2019 ended with one last…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[60099,60098,21485,2070,2210,3099,12785,84,10115,27762,21487,23024,8352,50638,6115,11061,62,12335,1464,67,132,68,46604,2058],"class_list":{"0":"post-90259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina","9":"tag-alex-de-minaur","10":"tag-ben-shelton","11":"tag-brandon-nakashima","12":"tag-coco-gauff","13":"tag-daniil-medvedev","14":"tag-dc-wire","15":"tag-district-of-columbia","16":"tag-emma-raducanu","17":"tag-frances-tiafoe","18":"tag-jessica-pegula","19":"tag-madison-keys","20":"tag-magdalena-frech","21":"tag-martina-navratilova","22":"tag-naomi-osaka","23":"tag-peyton-stearns","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-taylor-fritz","26":"tag-tennis","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-venus-williams","31":"tag-washington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114911599936956274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90259","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=90259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}