As Venus Williams prepared to compete this week for the first time in 16 months, one of the most decorated players in tennis history was asked why.
Why, at age 45 and with so many other ventures in her life, would Williams grind and train in hot and humid conditions and battle players half her age?
“Why not?!” Williams shot back with a sly smile.
On Tuesday night, Williams answered with her play. Before a sold-out Stadium Court on a picture-perfect evening in Rock Creek Park, Williams turned back the clock. She delivered powerful groundstrokes, showed deft play from the net, fired nine aces and even covered significant ground.
She brought the crowd to its feet and ultimately held off World No. 35 Peyton Stearns 6-3 6-4 in one hour and 37 minutes.
Why come back? For nights like these.
“This is the best result, to play a good match and win,” she said. “I'm here with my friends, family, people I love, and the fans, too, who I love and they love me, so this has been just a beautiful night.”
It didn’t start out that way as Williams was broken in the first game of the match, dropping four straight points all via unforced errors. It got better from there. Williams immediately broke back, took the first set and then rallied from 3-1 down in the second.
A marathon game at 5-3 saw Williams miss out on four match points. She ultimately secured the win, though, on her serve, converting on her sixth match point of the night when Stearns returned a scorcher of a Williams serve into the net.
A standing ovation followed, along with Williams’ patented pirouette and wave.
“It's the first step, and the first match is always extremely difficult,” she said. “It's hard to describe how difficult it is to play a first match after so much time off.”
Williams is competing this week for the first time since the Miami Open in March 2024 and for the first time since undergoing fibroids surgery soon after.
While the 45-year-old Williams is the oldest woman to win a WTA match since Martina Navratilova in 2004, she says the real takeaway is her physical well being.
"I'm just constantly praying for good health, so that way I could have an opportunity to play with good health," she said. "A lot of this for me is being able to come back and try to play at a level [and] to play healthy."
Even in defeat, Stearns was appreciative of Williams' journey and what both were a part of on Tuesday night.
"I have so much respect for her to come back here and play, win or lose," said Stearns, 23, who is just three years removed from playing collegiately at Texas.
"That takes a lot of guts to step back onto court, especially with what she's done for the sport. You know, you have a lot behind you. You have accomplished a lot. And there is a lot of pressure on her and to kind of upkeep that at this age. So massive credit to her for that."
Williams now has a quick turnaround with a mid-afternoon doubles match on John Harris Court Wednesday. Williams and DC’s Hailey Baptiste with face the second-seeded team of Taylor Townsend and Shuai Zheng in the quarterfinals.
Williams will then face No. 5 seed Magdalena Frech in her second-round singles match on Thursday.
Can the magical week continue for Venus?
"Why not?!"
