Venus Williams\u2019 former coach Rick Macci has revealed the only reason the tennis icon is still playing as he shared his thoughts on her return to the tour.<\/p>\n
At the WTA 500 event in Washington last month,\u00a0Williams<\/a>\u00a0stunned Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round in what was her first match in 16 months. It was the American\u2019s first victory since she beat Victoria Kudermetova at the 2023 Cincinnati Open almost two years earlier.<\/p>\n At the age of 45, Williams\u2019 win saw her become the second-oldest woman in history to win a match on the WTA Tour after a 47-year-old Martina Navratilova in 2004.<\/p>\n The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, who was competing as a wildcard, lost 6-2, 6-2 to fifth seed Magdalena Frech in the second round.<\/p>\n The former world No 1 also won a match with partner Hailey Baptiste in the Citi DC Open doubles event before the pair fell to eventual winners Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n Williams, who is ranked 643rd in the world after her triumph over Stearns, has been given a wildcard to play at the 2025 Cincinnati Open. She will face Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in her opening match at the WTA 1000 tournament.<\/p>\n Macci<\/a>\u00a0started coaching Venus Williams at his academy in Florida in 1991, when she was 11, and he helped develop her game until 1995. He also coached her sister, Serena.<\/p>\n Speaking exclusively to\u00a0Tennis365, Macci weighed in on his former student\u2019s remarkable comeback.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst off, obviously one of my favourite students of all time,\u201d said the American coach.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth her and Serena, as you saw from the movie King Richard, both like my daughters. Especially Venus, because she was a little older and I spent more time with her.<\/p>\n \u201cWould I ever have thought, when she didn\u2019t play a tournament for three and a half years and she made that debut in 1994, and beat 57 in the world and almost beat No 1, and she shocked the world by not even playing any junior tournaments or any pro tournament?<\/p>\n Venus Williams pens emotional message as she marks one year since major operation<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Who is Venus Williams\u2019 fiance? Italian film star and former model Andrea Preti<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAnd then here we are at age 45 and she\u2019s still playing \u2014 and she doesn\u2019t even play a tournament for a year! I mean, she kinda went into pro tennis very different and she\u2019s on her way out a little differently.<\/p>\n \u201cListen, at the end of the day, she just loves to play. I saw the same smile and enthusiasm. She won that match [against Stearns], she\u2019s bouncing up and down like a human pogo stick. The same exact thing I saw at age 14, it was identical.<\/p>\n \u201cBut no, it\u2019s great because of one reason: it\u2019s her decision. When people wanna retire or whatever, that\u2019s their decision. And whatever is their decision, in my opinion, is the best decision.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though there are people who are gonna chime in and whatever, at the end of the day, her getting a wildcard and playing\u2026 and if you look at it, the fans were in the stands. It\u2019s all about selling tickets and eyeballs. Let\u2019s face it, if [Roger] Federer wanted a wildcard into the Canadian Open after not playing for a while, I think he would have gotten one.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked how long he expects Williams to continue playing, Macci said: \u201cI think as long as she\u2019s enjoying it.<\/p>\n \u201cYou gotta understand, she has a different platform. People love Venus, it\u2019s that simple. It\u2019s not even about\u2026 she\u2019s not gonna win the tournament and she\u2019s not doing it for any other reason except she loves to compete.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, people have been asking me this question for five years and she\u2019s still playing. So, as long as she loves it and she wants to do it, I think it\u2019s great for the game of tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT:\u00a0Coco Gauff told exactly how her serving issues could be solved \u2018in an hour\u2019 by legendary coach Rick Macci<\/a> The post Venus Williams\u2019 former coach reveals the only reason she is still playing as he makes a prediction<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Venus Williams\u2019 former coach Rick Macci has revealed the only reason the tennis icon is still playing as he shared his thoughts on her return to the tour. At the WTA 500 event in Washington last month,\u00a0Williams\u00a0stunned Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round in what was her first match in 16 months. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Venus Williams News<\/h2>\n
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