Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams has celebrated victory in the last 16 of the women’s doubles at the Washington Open after 16 months away from tennis.
The 45-year-old former world number one, who accepted a wildcard for the tournament, had not competed since the Miami Open in March 2024 – and last won at the Cincinnati Open in August 2023.
Williams and fellow American Hailey Baptiste beat Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue 6-3, 6-1.
“It was inspiring to be out here,” Williams told Sky Sports. “I love this game and still hitting it big.”
She will face another American, Peyton Stearns, in the first round of the singles competition yesterday.
Williams, who was playing doubles for the first time in three years, joked she wished she could have partnered with 23-year-old Baptiste, the world number 50, instead of her sister Serena – the 23-time major champion.
She said: “I think from the first point I could see that we were going to be a good team. We just should have started playing earlier, years ago, right? I think Serena was just in the way.”
Venus, who does not have a ranking, won 14 major titles alongside Serena in the women’s doubles, as the Williams sisters dominated the sport for many years.
Elsewhere, British number three Emma Raducanu and Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina beat number four seeds Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls 2-6 7-6 (7-4) 11-9.
The pair lost the first five games of the first set, having been broken three times.
But they regrouped, taking the second set on a tie-break.
The British-Kazakh duo then squandered four match points in the championship tie-break, allowing their 9-5 lead to slip.
But they won the next two points from there to seal victory on their debut playing together.
In the men’s singles, Britain’s Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie are through to the second round in Washington.
Evans beat Belgian Zizou Bergs 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round and will take on American Alex Michelsen next.
Meanwhile, Norrie defeated British qualifier Billy Harris 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) but faces a tough test in the next round against French Open semi-finalist and second seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy.