The door is open everywhere. The fact that the elder of the Williams sisters belongs to the position in the fifth hundred of the ranking does not play any role. Among the fans, she still enjoys extraordinary and well-deserved attention, while her rivals have only words of appreciation and admiration for the forty-three-year-old veteran. It was no different after the first round of the US Open.
“It was incredible for me to play with such a legend. I have tremendous respect for her. The fact that she is still playing at the age of 43 is really amazing,” said the 97th player in the world, the Belgian Minnen, who knocked Venus off the court after sets 1:6, 1:6. It was thus the heaviest defeat ever suffered by an American woman at a Grand Slam.
Surprise? Not at all. Williams won only two of her ten matches this year, the season before she did not win at all in the four tournaments she participated in. However, Venus is not going to follow her more successful sister Serena into tennis retirement. “I do not know it. I don’t know why you’re even asking,” the tennis player responded to a journalist’s question after the debacle.
The fact that she regularly meets opponents twenty or more years younger on the court is not a problem, but it could be the fact that she is absolutely obviously, and logically, no longer good enough for them. The statistics of recent seasons only confirm this.
Since the 2020 season, Venus Williams has played 37 singles matches, winning just seven times. She still loves tennis, especially in the United States her support is deservedly maximum. And she herself still believes in her tennis skills. “I wouldn’t say I played badly. It was just a day when I was unlucky,” she stated after the debacle with the Belgian.
Even if she doesn’t win a single match for the rest of her career, it won’t change the aura of Venus Williams. Especially for young players, the fight with her will remain an immense honor and motivation. But the fact remains that for a long time now, for most of the opponents of the wider world elite, it has not meant a serious danger. The question for Venus is whether she still needs something like this…