Venus Williams returned to the US Open on Tuesday as the 45-year-old lost in a valiant mixed doubles effort alongside Reilly Opelka.
The tennis icon returned to the sport earlier this year at DC’s Citi Open after more than a year away, and hadn’t been back in Flushing since 2023.
But she showed flashes of her greatness as her and Opelka fell 2-4, 5-4 (4) in a hard-fought loss to Andrey Rublev and Karolina Muchova.
The early afternoon crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium showered Williams and Opelka with cheers as they walked out onto the court, and the seven-time singles Grand Slam provided some – though ultimately not enough – reminders of her pedigree.
After dropping the first set without a ton of resistance (which included Williams being broken), her and Opelka showed more mettle in the second set.
Williams survived break points at both 1-1 and 3-3 in the second set, and delighted the crowd when she fired an ace men’s world No. 15 Rublev to force a deuce in the latter game.
She then kept her strong service going with another strong serve at Muchova, teeing up the 6-foot-11 for a volley smash at the net to keep the match alive.
The Americans had legs in the tiebreak after winning two straight service points from the big-serving Opelka, but Williams volleyed into the net at 4-4 – giving Rublev and Muchova control of the tiebreak as they went on to win.
Rublev and Karolina Muchova will face Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori in the quarterfinals immediately after.
Williams, who received a wild card for the singles competition, is set to become the oldest singles entrant at the tournament since 1981 when the main draw begins this weekend.
The seven-time singles Grand Slam champ lost in the first round of the Cincinnati Open earlier this month but beat fellow American Peyton Stearns at the Citi Open in July to move into the second round in DC.
The revamped mixed doubles competition features 16 teams competing over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday, with the semifinals and finals occurring on Wednesday night.
Matches are first to two sets of four games, with no-ad scoring in deuces and a seven-point tiebreak taking the place of a third set when necessary.
The decision to schedule the mixed doubles competition earlier (it typically runs simultaneously with the main draw) has attracted some of the biggest names in the sport, such as Carlos Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz and Emma Raducanu.
However, the competition has also been plagued by several pull-outs, including Jannik Sinner just hours before he was meant to compete on Tuesday.
More to follow
