WASHINGTON — Venus Williams’ bid for her first profitable streak since 2019 ended with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Twenty fourth-ranked Magdalena Frech at the D.C. Open on Thursday evening.
Williams is 45, and her victory within the first spherical Tuesday evening in opposition to Thirty fifth-ranked Peyton Stearns made the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion the oldest girl 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 or he joked afterward that she was motivated to succeed as a result of she needed to have the ability to get again on the WTA’s medical insurance plan after being off the tour for greater than a 12 months.
She gained a doubles match in Washington, too. This difficult-court event was the primary occasion for Williams since March 2024; she missed time due to surgical procedure for uterine fibroids.
The final time Williams gained not less than two matches in a row was in August 2019, on the Cincinnati Open, the place she put collectively three consecutive victories earlier than shedding to Madison Keys within the quarterfinals.
Williams started nicely in opposition to Frech, going up 2-1. However from there, Frech claimed seven straight video games to personal the primary set and lead 2-0 within the second.
Frech is a 27-year-old from Poland whose finest Grand Slam displaying was a run to the fourth spherical on the 2024 Australian Open earlier than shedding to Coco Gauff.
The present underneath the lights on this night was all about Williams, whose greeting was a lot louder when she walked out on court docket toting a inexperienced train band. Each time Williams unfurled one in all her booming groundstrokes — and make no mistake, she nonetheless can hit the ball onerous — the group in the principle stadium let loose a roar.
The issue for Williams: She often was unable to correctly calibrate these pictures, together with when she sailed a forehand method out after dashing ahead to get to a brief ball off Frech’s racket. That gave Frech a 3-2 lead.
Williams would drop her head or droop her shoulders after some misses, and she or he had 14 unforced errors within the opening set, greater than twice as many as Frech. Followers usually responded with an “Awwww” instantly, earlier than making an attempt to offer Williams a lift by yelling assist.
After Williams fell behind 1-0 within the second set, a refrain rose of “Right here we go, Venus! Right here we go!”
She generated loud applause after getting a recreation a couple of minutes later, and there have been clap-accompanied chants of “Venus!” when she broke to get inside 4-2 in that set. However Williams did not get one other recreation.
When it ended after 1 hour, 12 minutes with one final Williams forehand that landed lengthy, spectators gave her a standing ovation, and she or he responded with a smile and the kind of pirouette and wave she often reserves for celebrating wins.
“We’re by no means going to say goodbye to Venus Williams, are we?” the stadium announcer stated.
In different motion Thursday, top-seeded Jessica Pegula misplaced to 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, and Emma Raducanu dominated her first profession matchup in opposition to Naomi Osaka, profitable the showdown between previous U.S. Open champions 6-4, 6-2.
“I did really feel it had a bit of additional,” Raducanu stated. “It is a match that I really feel lots of people had been speaking about beforehand.”
Raducanu, the primary qualifier to say a Grand Slam title when she did that in New York in 2021 by defeating Fernandez within the last, saved the one two break factors she confronted Thursday and broke the big-serving Osaka thrice.
Seeded males 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.
