Venus Williams turned back the clock and stunned 23-year-old Peyton Stearns in straight sets (6–3, 6–4) Tuesday night. The 45-year-old Williams advanced to the DC Open’s round of 16 after not having played a professional match in over a year.
Stearns, 22 years Williams’s junior, is ranked No. 35 in the world. The win made Williams the oldest player since Martina Navratilova to win a singles match on the WTA Tour. Navratilova won in the first round of Wimbledon in 2004 at 47 years old.
“I had to come back for the insurance—because they informed me this year that I’m on COBRA,” Williams joked during the post-match on-court interview. “So it’s like, ‘I got to get my benefits on.’” Williams, who never retired from tennis, has earned over $42 million in her professional career and ranks second in the WTA’s women’s career prize money leaders behind her younger sister Serena, who earned over $94 million.
Williams’s last match was at the Miami Open in March 2024, when she exited in the first round in straight set to 19-year-old Russian Diana Shnaider. The former world No. 1 also won her first doubles match in almost three years Monday, playing alongside Hailey Baptiste. The pair defeated Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue in two sets (6-3, 6-1).
The seven-time Grand Slam winner is slated to play Poland’s Magdalena Frech, world No. 24, in the second round Thursday.
“She’s not someone you ever want to see on the other side of the net,” Eric Hechtman, who coached Williams between 2019 and 2023, told Front Office Sports in Washington on Wednesday. “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.”
Williams has publicly shared health struggles that have impacted her throughout her career. In 2011 she disclosed she had been diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease. She’s also dealt with fibroids, benign but often very painful tumors in the uterus. She missed time last year in part due to having surgery to remove uterine fibroids.
“There are no limits for excellence,” Williams said after the win Tuesday night. “It’s all about what’s in your head and how much you’re able to put into it. If you put in the work mentally, physically, and emotionally, then you can have the result. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down. Doesn’t 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.”
—Courtney Fallon contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.
