Venus Williams suffered defeat in the women's doubles quarterfinals of the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington DC, but the 45-year-old tennis player still maintains her hopes in the women's singles event at the WTA 500 event.
Partnering with Hailey Baptiste, Venus lost to Taylor Townsend/Zhang Shuai after a super tie-break. The American pair, with a 22-year age difference, were defeated by the second seeds 4-6, 6-3, 6-10, according to the WTA.
Despite this, Venus still holds onto her singles hopes. Playing her first singles match in 16 months, Venus secured a victory on Tuesday (July 22) local time, making more history on the WTA Tour.
In a first-round battle between American tennis players, Venus defeated world number 35 Peyton Stearns with a score of 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hour and 37 minutes.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion became the oldest player to win a tour-level singles match since 47-year-old Martina Navratilova beat Catalina Castano at Wimbledon in 2004, more than 21 years ago.
"You know, it's the first step, and the first match is always really tough. It's hard to describe how tough it is to play your first match after such a long layoff," Williams said, as quoted by the WTA on Thursday.
