Martina Navratilova has doffed her hat to Venus Williams after the seven-time Grand Slam winner silenced those who questioned her return to action at the Washington DC Open.
Organisers of the WTA 500 tournament came in for some criticism for awarding the tennis great a wildcard for the event following her extended spell on the sidelines, but the 45-year-old repaid their faith.
Williams – whose last match before the Citi DC Open was in March 2024 – made an “unbelievable” return to top-level action as she first teamed up with Hailey Baptside in the women’s doubles on Monday to defeat Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue.
A day later, she made her singles comeback and this time she upset world no 35 Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 37 minutes as she recorded her first WTA win since the Cincinnati Open in August 2023.
The American’s fellow former world No 1 Navratilova admitted she also had concerns about Williams’ return, but has been forced to eat her words.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh, this isn’t going to end well’. And how wrong was I? How wrong was I?” the 18-time major winner told the official WTA Tour website.
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She added: “What can you say – because it’s unbelievable. She beat a top-ranked [No. 35] player. I mean, hats off.”
Williams spoke about her love for the game after her incredible win as she also admitted she had doubts over her comeback.
“I mean, the meaning of this win, there is a lot of work that goes into this kind of preparation. I think each week that I was training, I was, like, Oh, my God, I don’t know if I’m good enough yet,” she revealed.
“And then there would be weeks where I would leap forward, and there would be two weeks where I was, like, Oh, God, it’s not happening. Even the week leading up, Oh, my gosh, I need to improve so much more. So it’s all a head game.
“I think more than anything, it’s just about love, right? If you have enough love for it, then you’ll put in the effort, and then you’ll find that little extra little bit at the end because I love it so much.”
And Navratilova echoed her fellow American’s comments and she hopes there is more to come from the great.
“It just shows how much Venus loves the game,” Navratilova said. “Hope, perseverance, not quitting. Follow your path, just follow your path. If you’re on the path that you want to be on, that you love, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose, no matter what the result is, because you’re loving the path.
“Venus loves all of it, getting on the court. I hope she keeps going.”
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