The final return? Venus Williams will compete at the US Open again at the age of 45

Was she even still there? asked the "NZZ am Sonntag" in August 2022, shortly before the start of the US Open, when Serena Williams announced that Flushing Meadows, the fourth major of the season on the outskirts of New York City, would be her last tournament as a professional tennis player.

Tennis fans felt a similar reaction last week when the US Open organizers announced they were awarding a wild card to Venus Williams, the older of the two Williams sisters. The now 45-year-old American has recently become a rare sight on the tennis scene. Since the beginning of the season, there has been speculation about when she might announce her retirement.

Since her first-round loss at Flushing Meadows a year ago, Williams has played just five matches on the professional tour, losing four of them. That's a dismal record for a woman who once won every tournament she entered.

That's why her return to the US Open spotlight feels almost like a comeback from retirement. But it isn't. At the beginning of August, Venus Williams competed at the tournament in Washington, defeating fellow countrywoman Peyton Stearns in straight sets before losing in the second round. Last week in Cincinnati, she lost in her very first match.

Williams appears to no longer be competitive. Nevertheless, the organizers of the US Open didn't hesitate for a second to give her a wild card for the tournament, which begins this Sunday. Williams is one of the greats of the past three decades in women's tennis. Together with her sister Serena, who is one year younger, she has dominated the tour for years and left a lasting mark.

The two Williams sisters have won 30 major singles titles between them (Serena 23, Venus 7). They have won the US Open eight times alone (6/2). Both were ranked No. 1 in women's tennis for extended periods. Venus is currently ranked 580th.

She will be competing in Flushing Meadows for the 25th time. That alone is a record. She is the oldest player in the main draw in 44 years, and Renée Richards, who played in New York in 1981 at the age of 47, will face Czech Karolina Muchova (WTA 12) in the first round.

Legend has it that the father, Richard Williams, laid out his daughters' careers in a meticulously crafted master plan before they were even born. The film "King Richard," starring Will Smith as the father, chronicles the family's history in a meticulous and sensitive way. It was nominated in six categories at the 2022 Academy Awards. Smith won Best Actor.

The phrase "If you fail to plan, you're planning to crash" appears several times in the film. It's something of a mantra for the family and the success story that has made sisters Serena and Venus arguably the best and now most popular tennis players in history. Therefore, it's hard to imagine that Venus Williams doesn't have clear ideas about one of the most important steps in her career: retirement. She may have been planning to say her final goodbyes at this year's US Open for a long time.

Anyone who has followed how meticulously and carefully Williams' father has advanced his daughters' careers can also understand how difficult it is for them to finally retire from professional sports. At a time when young stars like Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis were already in the global spotlight at a young age and threatened to break under the pressure, Richard Williams long resisted exposing his talented and highly developed daughters to the professional circuit.

Driven by an abusive and careless father, Capriati descended into petty crime and drug offenses. Her mug shot later gained international notoriety and became synonymous with a promising career that ended prematurely and tragically.

Today, Williams' father can rightly be proud of his foresight in not pushing his daughters into the circus at such an early age. He demanded respect from them and repeatedly urged them not to give up on their childhood too quickly. This may be one reason why both remained active and more or less successful athletes well into their relatively advanced years.

Like so many others, Venus Williams dreamed of winning Wimbledon as a child. She eventually achieved it five times (2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, and 2008), becoming the first African American woman to top the world rankings in the Open era. Her sister Serena was even more successful, holding the world number 1 spot for 319 weeks. In the film "King Richard," when asked by a reporter who her role model was, a young Serena says: "I don't have a role model. I want people to want to be like me."

Together with her sister Venus, she not only transformed the sport of tennis with her aggressive, attacking style, but also gave an entire generation of young Black youth in the USA a perspective and a belief in their own potential. The two of them are the personification of the American dream. That's more of a legacy than most athletes leave behind.

In 1980, Richard Williams saw Romanian tennis player Virginia Ruzici win a tournament and receive a large sum of money. The realization that women could also earn a lot of money in the sport inspired him to plan a tennis career for his daughters , Venus and Serena Williams .

He took his family, moved to Los Angeles, and settled in Compton, where street violence is a daily occurrence and the band NWA (Niggaz Wit Attitudes) invented gangster rap. In the documentary "Venus and Serena," he says: "Life in the ghetto makes you strong and teaches you everything sports stars need to be successful."

Williams initially faced a lot of criticism for his course and the stubbornness with which he pursued it. Neighbors reported him to the police for abusing his children. But Venus Williams says: "I didn't have a hard life; we had a lot of fun. I wasn't aware of any danger. I went to school and played tennis tournaments on the weekends."

After her final match at the US Open three years ago, Serena Williams tearfully said in an on-court interview: "Without Venus, I wouldn't be here. Thank you, Venus." The story of the Williams sisters is a kind of modern-day Cinderella story. They are already legends in their own right.

An article from the « NZZ am Sonntag »