{"id":11573307,"date":"2025-07-22T21:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T01:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11573307"},"modified":"2025-07-23T14:13:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T18:13:49","slug":"dc-open-venus-williams-payton-stearns-wta-singles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/07\/22\/dc-open-venus-williams-payton-stearns-wta-singles\/","title":{"rendered":"At DC Open, Venus Williams turns back the clock with singles victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Venus Williams became the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match in professional tennis, delivering some of her familiar big serves and groundstrokes at age 45 while beating Peyton Stearns \u2014 22 years her junior \u2014 by a 6-3, 6-4 score at the DC Open on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

This was the first singles victory for Williams in nearly two years. The only older woman to win a match was Martina Navratilova at 47 in 2004.<\/p>\n

The former No. 1-ranked Williams had not played singles in an official match since March 2024 in Miami, missing time while having surgery to remove uterine fibroids. She hadn’t won in singles since August 2023 in Cincinnati. Until this week, she was listed by the WTA Tour as \u201cinactive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not easy,\u201d Williams said, \u201cto [come back] after all that time and play the perfect match.\u201d<\/p>\n

But backed by a crowd that clearly was there to see, and support, her at the hard-court tournament in the nation’s capital, Williams showed glimpses of the talent she possesses and the skills she displayed while earning all of her Grand Slam titles: seven in singles, 14 in women\u2019s doubles \u2014 all alongside younger sister Serena \u2014 and two in mixed doubles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to play a good match,\u201d she told the fans, then added a phrase that drew appreciative roars: \u201cand win the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Tuesday’s second game, for example, Williams smacked a return winner to get things started, then delivered a couple of other big responses to break Stearns, a 23-year-old who won singles and team NCAA titles at the University of Texas and is currently ranked 35th.<\/p>\n

In the next game, Williams sprinted forward to reach a drop shot and replied with a winner. Soon, she led 4-2, then was closing that set.<\/p>\n

She was accompanied by choruses of cheers. The first arrived when Williams walked out into the main stadium at the DC Open, a 7,000-seat arena that’s more than twice as large as where she was for her doubles victory a day earlier. Another came when she strode from the sideline to the center of the court for the formality of the coin toss. The noise really reached a crescendo when Williams began hitting aces \u2014 at 110 mph and faster \u2014 the way she used to.<\/p>\n

There also were moments where Williams \u2014 who said her fianc\u00e9 was in the stands \u2014 looked as if it had been just as long as it actually has since she competed, including in the opening game, when she got broken at love this way: forehand wide, forehand into the net, forehand long, backhand long.<\/p>\n

At the end, it took Williams a bit of extra effort to close things out. She kept holding match points and kept failing to convert them. But eventually, she powered in a 112 mph serve that Stearns returned into the net. That was it: Williams smiled wide as can be and jogged to the net to shake hands, then performed her customary post-win pirouette-and-wave.<\/p>\n

She advanced to a second-round matchup against No. 5 seed Magdalena Frech, a 27-year-old from Poland.<\/p>\n

In other action Tuesday, Emma Raducanu handed No. 7 seed Marta Kostyuk a sixth consecutive loss by eliminating her, 7-6 (4), 6-4. That set up a matchup between Raducanu and four-time major champion Naomi Osaka, who was a 6-2, 7-5 winner against Yulia Putintseva.<\/p>\n

Two top men’s seeds exited: Cam Norrie beat No. 2 Lorenzo Musetti, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, and No. 3 Holger Rune withdrew from the tournament because of a back injury. No. 4 seed Ben Shelton defeated Mackie McDonald, 6-3, 6-4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the DC Open, 45-year-old Venus Williams became the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match in professional tennis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":11573320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-07-23T01:58:07Z","apple_news_api_id":"0d9fc287-a2e9-444e-aee7-418c31d375ca","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-07-23T02:08:00Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ADZ_Ch6LpRE6u50GMMdN1yg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"subheadline":"45-year-old star becomes the oldest woman since 2004 to win a tour-level match","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[83,101],"tags":[24457],"feature":[],"location":[],"type-of-work":[],"coauthors":[9248],"class_list":["post-11573307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-headlines","category-sports","tag-social"],"post_status":"","edit_last":0,"edit_lock":0,"highlights":"","original_byline":"","original_canonical":"","original_category":"","original_email":"","original_id":0,"original_pubdate":"","original_source":"","primary_section":"101","primary_tag":0,"print_workflow_body":{"deck_headline":"TENNIS DC OPEN","print_title":"Venus Williams turns back the clock with singles victory","print_subheadline":"45-year-old star becomes the oldest woman since 2004 to win a tour-level match","print_priority":"","print_placement":"inside","print_planned_ready":"","print_pub_date":"","print_slug":"TBS-Z-DCOPENVENUSWINS-0724","print_budget_line":"","print_excerpt":"At the DC Open, 45-year-old Venus Williams became the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match in professional tennis.","print_notes":"","photo_limits":"Photo limits are: 1 featured image, 5 featured gallery images, 5 embedded gallery images and 5 in-article embedded images. Articles that exceed these limits will not export. Please adjust images to reflect these limits.","print_featured_gallery_richtext":"","print_inline_galleries_richtext":"","print_inline_images_richtext":"","print_content":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Venus Williams became the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match in professional tennis, delivering some of her familiar big serves and groundstrokes at age 45 while beating Peyton Stearns \u2014 22 years her junior \u2014 by a 6-3, 6-4 score at the DC Open on Tuesday night.<\/p>

This was the first singles victory for Williams in nearly two years. The only older woman to win a match was Martina Navratilova at 47 in 2004.<\/p>

The former No. 1-ranked Williams had not played singles in an official match since March 2024 in Miami, missing time while having surgery to remove uterine fibroids. She hadn't won in singles since August 2023 in Cincinnati. Until this week, she was listed by the WTA Tour as \u201cinactive.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt is not easy,\u201d Williams said, \u201cto [come back] after all that time and play the perfect match.\u201d<\/p>

But backed by a crowd that clearly was there to see, and support, her at the hard-court tournament in the nation's capital, Williams showed glimpses of the talent she possesses and the skills she displayed while earning all of her Grand Slam titles: seven in singles, 14 in women\u2019s doubles \u2014 all alongside younger sister Serena \u2014 and two in mixed doubles.<\/p>

\u201cI wanted to play a good match,\u201d she told the fans, then added a phrase that drew appreciative roars: \u201cand win the match.\u201d<\/p>

In Tuesday's second game, for example, Williams smacked a return winner to get things started, then delivered a couple of other big responses to break Stearns, a 23-year-old who won singles and team NCAA titles at the University of Texas and is currently ranked 35th.<\/p>

In the next game, Williams sprinted forward to reach a drop shot and replied with a winner. Soon, she led 4-2, then was closing that set.<\/p>

She was accompanied by choruses of cheers. The first arrived when Williams walked out into the main stadium at the DC Open, a 7,000-seat arena that's more than twice as large as where she was for her doubles victory a day earlier. Another came when she strode from the sideline to the center of the court for the formality of the coin toss. The noise really reached a crescendo when Williams began hitting aces \u2014 at 110 mph and faster \u2014 the way she used to.<\/p>

There also were moments where Williams \u2014 who said her fianc\u00e9 was in the stands \u2014 looked as if it had been just as long as it actually has since she competed, including in the opening game, when she got broken at love this way: forehand wide, forehand into the net, forehand long, backhand long.<\/p>

At the end, it took Williams a bit of extra effort to close things out. She kept holding match points and kept failing to convert them. But eventually, she powered in a 112 mph serve that Stearns returned into the net. That was it: Williams smiled wide as can be and jogged to the net to shake hands, then performed her customary post-win pirouette-and-wave.<\/p>

She advanced to a second-round matchup against No. 5 seed Magdalena Frech, a 27-year-old from Poland.<\/p>

In other action Tuesday, Emma Raducanu handed No. 7 seed Marta Kostyuk a sixth consecutive loss by eliminating her, 7-6 (4), 6-4. That set up a matchup between Raducanu and four-time major champion Naomi Osaka, who was a 6-2, 7-5 winner against Yulia Putintseva.<\/p>

Two top men's seeds exited: Cam Norrie beat No. 2 Lorenzo Musetti, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, and No. 3 Holger Rune withdrew from the tournament because of a back injury. No. 4 seed Ben Shelton defeated Mackie McDonald, 6-3, 6-4.<\/p>"},"print_workflow_exported_ts":"1753294472","print_workflow_exported_username":"Tim Schwartz","print_workflow_shapes":"","print_workflow_side":{"print_section":"24227","print_status":"24232","add_export_buttons":"","print_endpoint":"tribune"},"really_short_title":"","short_title":"","syndication_source":"","market_neutral_title":"","social_title":"","dfm_hub_post_id":0,"paywall_level":"metered","featured_media_content":{"content_type":"image","content":{"id":11573320,"title":"Washington Tennis","filename":"Washington-Tennis-1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Washington-Tennis-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/07\/22\/dc-open-venus-williams-payton-stearns-wta-singles\/washington-tennis-2\/","alt":"","author":"106","description":"","caption":"Venus Williams celebrates her win over Peyton Stearns during a match at the Citi Open tennis tournament Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in Washington. 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