Venus Williams shook with novelty – Newspaper Kommersant No. 139 (7340) of 08/03/2022

At the Citi Open, a $250,000 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 250 tournament in Washington, D.C., one of the most famous tennis players in the world, seven-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 Venus Williams played her first match in 12 months. . She lost in three sets to the little-known Canadian Rebecca Marino. However, the result of this match is not surprising. The increased interest in him is due to the age of Venus Williams, who recently turned 42 years old.

The appearance in the grids of professional tournaments of tennis players belonging to the age category of 40+ cannot be called a regular occurrence. Suffice it to say that at the moment in the world ranking, which takes into account the results of all official competitions, including the lowest level, there are only two such athletes, and their names do not say anything even to the most advanced tennis fans. True, one of them, American Sylvia Schenk, who occupies 1406th place, has extremely funny statistics. Over the past year, she has played six official tournaments with prize funds ranging from $15,000 to $60,000, and failed to take a single game in five out of nine matches. Although in view of the age of Mrs. Schenk, who has already passed 58 years, this is not surprising.

If we talk about more famous players, then Kimiko Date-Krumm certainly stands out from the short list of the oldest veterans of the professional tour who managed to attract attention with results in singles. Celebrating her 40th birthday in 2010, the Japanese reached the final at the tournament in Osaka. In order to become the oldest tennis player to win the WTA title and break the record set in 1983 in Birmingham by 39-year-old Billie Jean King, she then lacked the smallest thing – the third set left for Tamarin Tanasugarn from Thailand.

Venus Williams, of course, compared with the same Date-Krumm, is a much more prominent figure. Even though the peak of her career passed about 20 years ago, she has not won a Grand Slam singles tournament since 2008, and a WTA singles title since 2016.

The last high-profile successes of Williams Sr. date back to 2017, during which she reached the finals of the three largest competitions – the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the final WTA tournament, and at the finish line she took a place in the top five tennis players in the world.

Having taken off last year in the first round at the tournament in Chicago, held before the US Open, Venus Williams did not appear in public for a very long time, but rumors about her retirement were premature. She tried the mixed doubles at Wimbledon, where she went one lap with Briton Jamie Murray, Andy’s older brother. And now she received a wild card alone at three tournaments at once – in Washington, Toronto, where Serena also intends to play, and in Cincinnati. What this increased activity indicates is still unclear. It is possible that Venus Williams wants to understand what she is capable of and whether it is worth trying to continue active training. If so, then there really is no better opportunity than the American series on hard.

The match against Marino, the 111th qualifying racket of the world, showed that Williams Sr. does not look hopeless at all. In the decisive game, she led with a break – 4: 1, but then lost five games in a row. “Trying to get rid of the rust,” commented the loser, who, apparently, is still not without motivation and is again thinking about returning to the top hundred. In the meantime, the 37-year-old Estonian Kaia Kanepi remains the oldest there – by the way, the quarter-finalist of this year’s Australian Open.

Evgeny Fedyakov