{"id":21060,"date":"2025-07-25T12:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T12:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/21060\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T12:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T12:10:09","slug":"leylah-fernandez-says-what-venus-williams-has-reminded-her-of-in-her-return-to-tennis-at-the-washington-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/21060\/","title":{"rendered":"Leylah Fernandez says what Venus Williams has ‘reminded’ her of in her return to tennis at the Washington Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Venus Williams has taken the tennis world by storm with her return to the sport at the Washington Open. <\/p>\n

In her opening clash in D.C., Williams defeated Peyton Stearns<\/a> to become the second woman since 1990 to win a main draw match at WTA<\/a> level aged over 45.<\/p>\n

The American legend followed Martina Navratilova<\/a> in completing the feat, and shortly after was granted a wildcard for the upcoming Cincinnati Open.<\/p>\n

A second-round bout with fifth seed Magdalena Frech ultimately saw Williams<\/a> bow out of the tournament, as the eight-time major champion lost in straight sets to the Pole. <\/p>\n

Her age-defying return has got everyone on the tour talking, including former US Open<\/a> finalist Leylah Fernandez<\/a>, who says it\u2019s given her an important reminder in Washington.<\/p>\n

\"VenusPhoto by Tom Brenner For The Washington Post via Getty ImagesLeylah Fernandez reacts to Venus Williams return in Washington<\/p>\n

After her victory over first seed Jessica Pegula<\/a>, Fernandez said of Williams: \u201cShe\u2019s been a huge impact not only for myself but for my whole family.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer story has a little bit of a parallel with mine and my dad and my mom, so it\u2019s so cool to see a legend still playing, still doing what she loves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not kind of to prove people wrong, but it\u2019s because she truly loves the sport, and you can see the kid in her. I love that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that, because sometimes we forget that we started playing this sport as a kid with joy and passion. We think of it more as a job, and we lose that joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Venus, she reminded me that tennis is a privilege, that tennis is a sport where you have fun, you get down and you get back up, and you\u2019re still laughing, if you lose a point or when you win the point and you kind of just compete that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VenusPhoto by Scott Taetsch\/Getty ImagesVenus Williams\u2019 last appearance at a Grand Slam event<\/p>\n

After confirmation that she will feature at the Cincinnati Open, tennis fans are beginning to wonder if Williams will be making an appearance at this year\u2019s US Open. <\/p>\n

The last time she played at a Grand Slam was in 2023 at Flushing Meadows, where she lost in the first round. <\/p>\n

Williams suffered a heavy defeat to Greet Minnen, falling to the Belgian in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. <\/p>\n

It has been more than four years since she has advanced past the first round of a major, with her last victory coming in 2021 at Wimbledon. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venus Williams has taken the tennis world by storm with her return to the sport at the Washington…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,21590,85,747,11549,10971,2637],"class_list":{"0":"post-21060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-leylah-fernandez","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-venus-williams","14":"tag-washington-open","15":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}