For a few weeks this summer, it seemed that it was time, once again, to start wondering how much longer Venus Williams would be playing professional tennis.
Williams turned 39 in April. That’s an age we don’t hear mentioned much—or ever—on the tours. Venus hasn’t won a Grand Slam title since 2008, when she was a sprightly 28, and as of mid-August, she was ranked just 65th. When she lost in the first round at the French Open and Wimbledon, and then did the same in San Jose and Toronto, some people around the sport began to ask whether the inevitable end may finally be coming for this most stubborn and stalwart of champions. At Wimbledon, Venus went out to Coco Gauff, a 15-year-old who grew up idolizing her, and who is 24 years her junior. Some players might take that as a sign that the torch is ready to be passed.
Not Venus, of course. Rather than ruminate on her future or reminisce about her past, she has kept her eyes where they always are: on the next match.
“Just trying to win today and trying to win tomorrow and the day after,” Venus said at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati this summer when she was asked about her recent struggles. “At the end of the day you have to work hard and someone has to win and someone has to lose. I try to be the one that wins. When it doesn’t happen that way, you just work, just go and work at it.”
Call it vintage Venus wisdom. She’s been dispensing the same kind of practical, almost mystical advice for the better part of her 30s, and she has obviously been living by it, too.
“You have this infinity inside you that feels like it could go on forever,” she said a few years ago at Wimbledon. That feeling has helped her through career valleys before—when she finished 2011 ranked No. 103; when she struggled to crack the Top 50 in 2013; when she failed to make a Grand Slam final from 2009 to 2017. That year Venus proved that the “infinity inside her” was real: She reached the finals of Wimbledon and the Australian Open, and finished No. 5 in the world at age 37. As a teenager, Venus vowed that she would retire from tennis sooner rather than later; two decades later, she has pioneered a longevity revolution in the sport—Roger Federer and her sister Serena are following in her footsteps.
Right on cue, just as the whispers of the R-word began to grow louder, Venus proved infinite again last week at the Western & Southern Open. After recording her first win in three months in the first round, she beat defending champion and world No. 5 Kiki Bertens in a third-set tiebreaker. The big ground strokes, the knack for pouncing on short balls, the stoic, ultra-serious competitiveness: The old Venus was back yet again, and looking like she could easily be a factor into her 40s. When the match was over, she smiled the way she always smiles after a victory: Like a little kid who has just won her first match.
How will she fare at her 21st US Open? Last year Venus lost in the third round to her sister, but in 2017 she reached the semifinals. No one knows her way around Flushing Meadows like Venus; she has been to the quarters or better here 12 times. And no one will enjoy as much home-fan support.
Venus will also see the legacy of her barrier-breaking career in action. She has inspired her sister, Serena; helped pave the way for fellow African-Americans like Gauff, Madison Keys, and 2017 champion Sloane Stephens; and been a hero to other young Americans like Danielle Collins. Would you really be surprised if Venus is still playing when they’re all retired?
