Venus Williams Granted US Open Wild-Card Singles Entry

Venus Williams is making history again.

The 45-year-old has received a wild-card entry into the US Open women’s singles competition, the tournament announced Wednesday. She will be the oldest entry at the Grand Slam since 47-year-old Renée Richards in 1981, according to the International Tennis Federation.

It will also be Williams’s first Grand Slam singles match since the 2023 US Open. She was already expected to be at the tournament after receiving a wild-card entry to the mixed doubles competition alongside fellow American Reilly Opelka.

The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion is fresh off another history-making moment last month at the DC Open, a WTA 500 tournament. She defeated Peyton Stearns to become the oldest player in more than two decades to win a WTA Tour–level singles match.

Williams would lose her next match against Magdalena Fręch. Following the loss, however, she sounded as though she was looking forward to more tournaments.

“My coach and I were already talking about what we’re going to work on and also how much better I got so quickly in these last few weeks, too, was kind of like straight up a mountain. … We have made so much progress, and I expect that there will be more,” Williams said.

Eric Hechtman, her former coach, told Front Office Sports that he was “not surprised” by her success even at this age.

“She’s not someone you ever want to see on the other side of the net,” said Hechtman, who coached Williams between 2019 and 2023. “She’s tall. She’s imposing. She’s athletic. She brings everything she can possibly bring every moment, no matter what she has going on—what legends are made of.”

Before the DC Open, Williams’s last match was at the Miami Open in 2024. The last time she won a match at a Grand Slam was in 2021 at Wimbledon, while her last match win at the US Open was in 2019.

Williams is second all-time in career earnings among WTA Tour players at $42.7 million, behind her sister, Serena, who has amassed $94.8 million. However, six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Świątek is close to surpassing Venus Williams with $40.6 million.