The Williams sisters have never followed the rulebook, and Venus Williams is living proof of that once again. At 45, the seven-time Grand Slam legend is back, defying logic, time, and the WTA’s label of “inactive player.” After a full year away since falling in straight sets to Diana Shnaider at the 2024 Miami Open, the silence had nearly sealed her fate. But like a phoenix in sneakers, Venus stormed back with a wildcard into the DC Open, lacing up for battle once more. Her return to doubles, her first since teaming with Serena, was smooth, and in its rhythm, she found a new reflection: what her surgery taught her about tennis.

Venus Williams stormed back onto the WTA Tour with fire in her veins, teaming up with Washington’s own Hailey Baptiste to crush Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue 6-3, 6-1 in the DC Open’s first round. After over a year away from competition and nearly three since her last doubles match, Venus opened her return with a thunderous serve, only for it to be erased by a foot-fault call. 

Still, that false start couldn’t dim her blaze. Victory in hand, Venus didn’t just celebrate; she reflected, revealing what her surgery made her learn about tennis, lessons etched deep, born of pain and persistence.

Right after her victorious return at the DC Open, Venus Williams sat down at the press conference and peeled back the curtain on her journey, a path forged not just through matches, but through survival. When asked how surgery had shifted her mindset, she didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, I think my perspective at that time is I just want to be healthy,” she began. “Like you can play all the matches in the world, you can do all the things in the world, but when your health is gone or when your opportunities are being taken away, it just puts a whole new perspective.” 

Venus wasn’t thinking of rankings or comebacks while under the knife. “I wasn’t even thinking about tennis at that point. I just wanted to have a successful surgery that, you know, I lived through,” she admitted. “So that was kind of what was on my mind, and yeah, it just put everything into perspective. Like tennis is a game. It’s our life. It’s literally our obsession. It’s actually a cult, I think.” That blend of humor and hard-earned wisdom defined her spirit: a warrior who could laugh even as she bled.

And in that unflinching honesty, she left no doubt about what truly matters. “But you guys would know. You guys are here every year, too. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if your health’s not there,” she said. “So it definitely put it in perspective for me and maybe made it easier to make the decision to come back out here, with maybe play even freer.”

During this year’s Wimbledon, Venus Williams pulled back the curtain on a battle she had waged in silence for nearly 30 years, a revelation that explained her absence from the 2025 Championships. In a gripping July 3 interview with NBC News Daily, the 45-year-old legend laid bare her agonizing fight with fibroids and adenomyosis. The world saw her power; they never saw the pain, extreme vomiting, debilitating cramps, and unstoppable bleeding. And adenomyosis, a cruel condition where uterine tissue invades the muscle wall, only twisted the knife deeper. Despite having access to elite care, Venus’s cries were dismissed time and again.

It took one moment, a simple ad on social media saying, “You don’t have to live like this”, to flip the script. Venus launched into research and found Dr. Taraneh Shirazian at NYU Langone’s Center for Fibroid Care. For the first time, she got answers. “I was the first person to ever tell her [of the adenomyosis],” Dr. Shirazian told SELF. A successful myomectomy in July 2024 finally set Venus free.

Now, as she steps into her second doubles match, the comeback is personal. With Serena’s US Open buzz lighting the horizon, Venus walks her own path, healed, reborn, and ready to fight.

Venus Williams to face Peyton Stearns next

Since Venus Williams last stepped onto the court, whispers of retirement only grew louder. Her voice echoed not from rallies but from the commentary box at Roland Garros, where she traded her racquet for a microphone. Yet now, as the North American hard-court season roars to life, the 45-year-old warrior returns, armor on, spirit blazing. 

Her first tour-level singles match in over a year is set, and the spotlight is scorching. On the other side of the net stands 23-year-old Peyton Stearns, a fearless rising star crafting her own legacy. This marks the first-ever meeting between the two Americans, one a timeless icon, the other a symbol of the sport’s next chapter. Stearns, riding the momentum of a breakout season, hit a career-high No. 28 and surged into her first WTA 1000 semifinal on Rome’s red clay. Now, she faces a living legend under the Washington sun. It’s raw ambition versus battle-hardened brilliance: a generational showdown for the ages.

Though Venus has only competed once before at the Citi Open, bowing out in the opening round back in 2022, Washington, D.C., knows her greatness well. As the face of the Washington Kastles, she shone as Marquee Player six times, steering them to five World TeamTennis titles. The city has always felt like home turf.

“You gotta win to learn to win. You gotta win to win again. Isn’t that a conundrum?” Venus even quipped at the press conference following her doubles triumph today, her hunger unmistakable. “I think there are other performers, singers, they get to enjoy their performance throughout. But as an athlete, it’s only in that final moment that you can just let go. Other than that, it’s pure tension, pure focus, it’s pure fire.”

Now, the stage is set and the clock ticks down. Who rises when legacy meets the future today?