The word “retirement” does not seem to be present in the vocabulary of tennis legend Venus Williams, as this Tuesday, at 41 years of age, she made her 90th Grand Slam tournament appearance.
To the joy of her and her fans, this appearance was celebrated with a solid victory over the Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu by 7-5 4-6 6-3.
In her 23rd appearance in the Wimbledon singles draw, the eldest of the Williams sisters showed a consistent and aggressive style of play.
In the third set she led comfortably 5-1, however, she wasted two match points and that put some suspense to the match. Even so, Venus did not falter and sealed her ticket to the second round.
The five-time Wimbledon champion will now face Ons Jabeur. This win is to be admired, not only because of Venus’ age, but because this was only her tenth match of the season.
Also, this is Venus Williams’ first Wimbledon victory since 2018, so it also ends a losing streak.
The Lynwood native made her debut in this tournament in 1997, three years later she won her first singles title.
In other matches of the day, Ashleigh Barty defeated the admirable and feisty Carla Suarez-Navarro 6-1 6-7 (1-7) 6-1, while 2018 champion Angelique Kerber beat Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic 6-4 6-3.
