
Venus Williams wins doubles comeback after 16-month break
The 45-year-old American, who had not played a match in 16 months, partnered with Hailey Baptiste to defeat Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue 6-3 6-1 in the round of 16.
Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, last competed at the Miami Open in March last year. Speaking after the match, she described her comeback as 'inspiring' and praised her partnership with Baptiste.
'It wasn't easy for us but we brought it together quickly as a team. I love this game and still hitting it big,' Williams told Sky Sports.
The former world number one joked about her long-time doubles partnership with younger sister Serena, with whom she won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles.
'I could see that we were going to be a good team. We just should have started playing earlier, years ago, right?' Williams said.
'I think Serena was just in the way.' - Reuters

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Triathlon-Olympic champion Yee mixing things up to stay fresh for assault on LA 2028
FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Triathlon - Men's Individual Victory Ceremony - Alexander III Bridge, Paris, France - July 31, 2024. Gold medallist Alex Yee of Britain celebrates with his medal on the podium. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo LONDON (Reuters) -Alex Yee is already the most successful athlete in Olympic triathlon history and to give himself the best chance of adding to his medals in Los Angeles 2028 the Briton is mixing marathons with high-adrenaline Supertri to keep him fresh in mind and body. Yee's extraordinary late surge to overcome Hayden Wilde and snatch gold in Paris was one of the great moments of the Games. It came after he took silver in Tokyo alongside a gold in the Mixed Relay, adding bronze in that team event in 2024. Still only 27, Yee's goal is to match compatriot Alistair Brownlee by successfully defending his title in LA, but, having been putting his body through the relentless training needed for success across three sports since his teens, he has taken a different approach this year. After adding the 2024 world title to his Olympic haul over the 1,500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run distance, Yee threw himself into his first marathon and duly clocked an impressive two hours, 11.08 minutes to finish 14th at the London Marathon in April. "It was a very special period and allowed me to take a step back from my triathlon training and look at things a little bit differently to see how I could improve," Yee told Reuters in an interview. "I think for me to be able to take that small step away but still be working very much within the context of getting better within triathlon was very exciting but it was also the fact I was able to race one of my dream races, which I grew up leaning over the barriers and watching as a fan after racing the mini marathon." This weekend Yee goes to the other end of the speed spectrum when he races the Toronto leg of Supertri, the fast and furious multi-lap format that features three back-to-back rounds of 300m swim, 4km bike and 1.6km run with eight transitions. 'EXCITING FORMAT' "It's an exciting format for people to watch, it's developing our sport and evolving it and it's something which I want to be part of," he said. "With those races everything comes at you so fast that the mistakes are often magnified and as a result you actually have that really short-term opportunity to learn three times rather than it being one big hit and then you move on. "It might be a very small thing, maybe you miss your buckle on your helmet and then the next thing you know the pack's gone. It's all those little nuances which make up Supertri and make it exciting." Those "marginal gains" picked up from different formats and building marathon endurance are key to Yee's bid for more gold in LA, when the individual triathlon medals will be won on the first two days of the Games. "The sport has evolved and I know if I do what I did for Tokyo and what I did for Paris, if I keep doing the same thing, then the sport will leave me behind," he said. "I need to think about how I can improve and, excitingly, that means that I can work on my run again, which has been something I haven't been able to do for the last five years. "That stuff has really kept me motivated and kept me excited and I think, fundamentally, if you still have that energy and that excitement towards the sport, then it's a really positive thing." Yee says keeping his body healthy and his mind fresh are the key ingredients for future success, but a more holistic approach has replaced a traditional multi-year, detailed training plan. "I would say my roadmap is mainly about the person I want to be in, the mindset I want to be in," he said. "I feel like there is so much more I can deliver and improve on. Then I can stand on that start line and say, 'yeah, I've done everything I can' and I can be proud, no matter the result, of the person I've become on the journey." (Reporting by Mitch Phillips, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)


The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Cycling-Pogacar crashes into Vingegaard's team car before Tour stage start
Cycling - Tour de France - Stage 18 - Vif to Courchevel Col de la Loze - Vif, France - July 24, 2025 UAE Team Emirates XRG's Tadej Pogacar wearing the yellow jersey before the start of stage 18 REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier COURCHEVEL, France (Reuters) -Tour de France overall leader Tadej Pogacar suffered a big scare on Thursday when he bumped into the team car of his chief rival Jonas Vingegaard before the start of the 18th stage, a brutal mountain trek from Vif to the Col de la Loze. "We were going to the start line and the cars were also going... we were cruising behind the (Visma-Lease a Bike) car, maybe a bit too close and he suddenly... maybe I don't know if he wanted to brake check me, to check my brakes," Slovenian Pogacar said with a smile. "I was not ready because I did not see the reason why he had to stop urgently so we crashed into the car, I hit my... but it's okay, I'm okay we're good," he added. It was not clear who Pogacar was with when he hit the Visma-Lease a Bike car. Pogacar leads Dane Vingegaard by 4 minutes 15 seconds going into the 18th stage. (Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ed Osmond)


New Straits Times
an hour ago
- New Straits Times
Women's Euro exit shows once-mighty Germany battling to keep pace
A COURAGEOUS German performance in their 1-0 Women's Euro semi-final defeat by world champions Spain means they leave Switzerland with heads high, but the once-dominant team need to find a cutting attacking edge to keep up with the best. Spain playmaker Aitana Bonmati proved to be the difference, conjuring up a superb winner in extra time. Though Christian Wueck's young side performed well on the night, they lacked a truly world-class attacking talent to turn a game in their favour at such a high level. "We have to evolve, we have to improve, we had phases of ball possession today that we simply did not exploit well, and those are areas where we need to improve, especially in the youth system, so that we can develop well-trained players for the Bundesliga," Wueck told reporters. "Also (we need to) perform better in those phases of ball possession that were not well-executed today, especially at that level. That is part of being a top team, and of course we are still lacking in comparison to Spain and England." Spain face England in Sunday's final. Eight-time champions Germany have not won the tournament since 2013 in Stockholm, and in the meantime they have been reined in and passed by as other countries pour money into the development of the women's game. The 2013 victory was built on the back of the stunning goalkeeping of Nadine Angerer, who saved two penalties in the final against Norway, and the 2025 squad looked to have a similar net-minding talisman in the shape of Ann-Katrin Berger, who pulled off a miraculous save in their quarter-final against France to prevent an own goal. Berger followed that up with a stellar performance in the penalty shootout win over the French that followed, but on Wednesday she was caught out by Bonmati's lightning shot from a tight angle to her uncovered near post that ended up as the only goal of the game. Though Berger took the blame for the defeat, it was not solely hers to bear. Germany had plenty of chances, with Klara Buehl superb down the left, but they lacked the killer instinct in front of goal that Bonmati displayed. All in all, the Germans displayed plenty of promise as they beat Poland, Denmark and the French in Switzerland, with the only blemish a shock 4-1 defeat by Sweden in which they had a player sent off in the first half. Though some of his choices have been questioned, Wueck says his focus on young players is paying off. "I recently read that the (German Football Association) DFB is miles behind the top nations, and three days later I read that we are in the semi-finals. So maybe the Germans need to learn a little bit that we do everything together, that we want the best for the German nation," he said. — REUTERS