Venus Williams, 45, falls short in bid for first win streak since 2019

The Guardian

3 days ago

Venus Williams' bid for her first winning streak since 2019 ended with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to 24th-ranked Magdalena Frech at the DC Open on Thursday night.
Williams is 45, and her victory in the first round Tuesday night against 35th-ranked Peyton Stearns made the seven-time grand slam singles champion the oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova was 47 in 2004.
That was Williams' first win in singles since 2023, and she joked afterward that she was motivated to succeed because she wanted to be able to get back on the WTA's health insurance plan after being off the tour for more than a year.
She won a doubles match in Washington, too. This hard-court tournament was the first event for Williams since March 2024; she missed time because of surgery for uterine fibroids.
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 quarter-finals.
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.
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.
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 – and make no mistake, she still can hit the ball hard – the crowd in the main stadium let out a roar.
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's racket. That gave Frech a 3-2 lead.
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 'Awwww' right away, before trying to give Williams a boost by yelling support.
After Williams fell behind 1-0 in the second set, a chorus rose of 'Here we go, Venus! Here we go!'
She generated loud applause after getting a game a few minutes later, and there were clap-accompanied chants of 'Venus!' when she broke to get within 4-2 in that set. But Williams didn't get another game.
When it ended after 1hr 12min with one last Williams forehand that landed long, spectators gave her a standing ovation, and she responded with a smile and the sort of pirouette and wave she usually reserves for celebrating wins.
'We're never going to say goodbye to Venus Williams, are we?' the stadium announcer said.
In other action Thursday, top-seeded Jessica Pegula lost to 2021 US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, and Emma Raducanu dominated her first career matchup against Naomi Osaka, winning the showdown between past US Open champions 6-4, 6-2.
'I did feel it had a bit of extra,' Raducanu said. 'It's a match that I feel a lot of people were talking about beforehand.'
Raducanu, the first qualifier to claim a grand slam title when she did that in New York in 2021 by defeating Fernandez in the final, saved the only two break points she faced Thursday and broke the big-serving Osaka three times.
Seeded men advancing included 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.