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Venus Williams will continue her professional tennis comeback at the US Open. The seven-time singles grand slam champion received a wild-card entry for the mixed doubles event alongside fellow American Reilly Opelka, the U.S. Tennis Association association announced Tuesday.
Williams, 45, returned to the WTA Tour last week at the D.C. Open after more than a year away, defeating Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 in the round of 32 to become the oldest woman to win a WTA Tour-level match since Martina Navratilova in 2004. Williams lost to Magdalena Frech 6-2, 6-2 in the round of 16. She also won a doubles match alongside Hailey Baptiste at the event.
Opelka, 27, stands 6-foot-11 and has a massive serve. He reached as high as No. 17 in the world rankings in 2022 but has had significant injury issues recently.
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The USTA made significant changes to the mixed doubles event, raising the prize money and altering the schedule so it doesn’t conflict with the singles event, in order to draw bigger names, according to the Associated Press. The event takes place over two days — Aug. 19 and 20 — the week before the singles portion of the tournament begins.
The effort seems to have worked. Also in the mixed doubles field are men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, who have combined to win all three singles slam titles this year. American men’s standouts Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton are also in the field. The highest-ranked woman participating in mixed doubles is No. 3 Iga Swiatek.
Williams still could request — and potentially receive — a wild-card entry for the singles event.