It was another glorious outing for Venus Williams at the Washington Open on Tuesday night (July 22) as she progressed to the next round of the WTA 500 event.
At 45 years of age, she managed to overcome fellow American and world number 35, Peyton Stearns, to become the oldest player in just over 20 years to secure a win on the WTA Tour.
Martina Navratilova remains the oldest player to win a WTA Tour match, doing so as a 47-year-old back in 2004.
The 6-3 6-4 first-round win over Stearns comes just a day after Williams made her long-awaited return to competitive tennis in the doubles event alongside Hailey Baptiste. Together, the compatriots defeated Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue in straight sets.
The doubles contest on Monday (July 21) was the first time Williams had featured on the court since March 2024. Evidently, she was able to carry that positive momentum from the doubles event into her latest singles matchup.
Williams has endured her fair share of injuries in recent years, leading to her missing many events and even falling out of the rankings.
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Despite having already achieved great success in her career, with a total of 23 majors, the 45-year-old has maintained her enthusiasm for competing on the court.
Her winning displays in Washington prove she still has a desire to succeed on the tour and can still provide genuine competition for the world's top seeded female players.
The American tennis icon will be hoping to continue her feel-good comeback story when she resumes her doubles quest with Baptiste on Wednesday (July 23) against Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai.
Then on Thursday (July 24), Williams will return to singles action with a matchup against Polish fifth seed, Magdalena Frech.
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