{"id":131096,"date":"2025-09-04T01:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T01:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/131096\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T01:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T01:49:07","slug":"venus-williams-coach-reveals-secret-to-training-oldest-us-open-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/131096\/","title":{"rendered":"Venus Williams’ coach reveals secret to training oldest US Open player"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venus Williams served up plenty of history-making<\/a> game this US Open.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old player walked into the tournament as the oldest player in the past four decades \u2014 and spent much of her three weeks on the court destroying competitors who were just half her age.<\/p>\n

The secret to coaching a superstar?<\/a> Letting her take the lead \u2014 but knowing when to tell her to take a break, her trainer, Diego Ayala, told The Post.<\/p>\n

Venus Williams became the oldest singles player at the US Open since 1981. Annie Wermiel\/NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a player at the caliber of Venus and the pedigree of Venus, you just try to figure out what the player is looking for from a coach and tap into that,\u201d explained Ayala, 46, a pro-trainer based out of Florida. <\/p>\n

The pair have only been training together since June, but under Ayala\u2019s tutelage, Williams became the second-oldest player to win a\u00a0WTA Tour-level match<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

When she arrived at the US Open last month, she also became the oldest singles player at the US Open since 1981, behind only Renee Richards, who was 47 at the time. <\/p>\n

At 45, Williams is nearly double the age of her competitors \u2014 studies indicate <\/a>that the average age of top players is between 25 and 28.<\/p>\n

Venus Williams and Diego Ayala began their partnership in June 2025. Andrew Schwartz\/SIPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

That means her training might look a little light compared to the average player.<\/p>\n

Williams spends up to three hours a day on the court between drills and scrimmaging \u2014 and a heavier emphasis on recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I\u2019d have to tell her, \u2018Hey, like let\u2019s go a little easier today. You went hard four days in a row!\u2019 I had to rein her in a little bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a player at the caliber of Venus and the pedigree of Venus, you just try to figure out what the player is looking for from a coach and tap into that,\u201d explained Ayala. Courtesy of Diego Ayala<\/p>\n

Ayala claimed there was no \u201csecret sauce\u201d to leading Williams to her success, but indicated that the strong relationship they built together was a major asset.<\/p>\n

The pair came up in the tennis world at the same time \u2014 though Williams and her sister, Serena, were mega stars who \u201ctranscended the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, it was kind of strange, but at the same time, I think it helped us bond a little bit better and understand each other because we are from the same era. We got a lot of the same jokes and same perspective,\u201d Ayala said.<\/p>\n

At 45, Williams is nearly double the age of her competitors. Annie Wermiel\/NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you know your stuff and she recognizes it, then she\u2019s gonna ask for more, and so once she started asking me for more, then I\u2019m going to give her as much as I can of myself,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has the mentality, she can improve everything, all the time. So I would tap into that and help her improve the things that she already knew she wanted to do. That\u2019s kind of how our relationship worked, and it really clicked.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it came to Williams\u2019 loss Tuesday<\/a>, Ayala said she was taking it well \u2014 and that the pair left \u201cno regrets\u201d on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of her goals was \u2014 especially for the Open \u2014 was to enjoy herself, to embrace the challenge and the competition. And she did that with a smile on her face. So that was awesome to see,\u201d Ayala said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venus Williams served up plenty of history-making game this US Open. The 45-year-old player walked into the tournament…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[186,5871,25785,31954,99,428,5417,14687,9518],"class_list":{"0":"post-131096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-exclusive","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york-city-life","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-tennis-match","15":"tag-us-open-tennis","16":"tag-venus-williams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}