WASHINGTON, D.C. — Venus Williams met the press Sunday in Washington, where she\u2019ll play her first match in more than a year. At 45, with a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that needs no embellishment, she\u2019s still finding reasons to compete, even if she\u2019s not spelling them out. She said more than once she likes to keep things close to the vest, and true to form, she didn\u2019t give away much.<\/p>\n
Which leads to these lingering questions:<\/p>\n
Why return now — and why D.C.?<\/p>\n
Venus didn\u2019t over-explain her decision to come back. She\u2019d been practicing, she loves hard courts, and D.C. just made sense. Her connection to the city is long-standing, but the return seemed more about timing than sentiment.<\/p>\n
Williams: \u201cMost of the time I don’t [take up the offer to play as a wild card, laughing]. But this time I had been hitting the ball. And of course I love the game and the hard courts, it’s my favorite surface, what I feel comfortable on. So all those different factors.\u201d<\/p>\n
How long does she plan to keep playing?<\/p>\n
Williams was direct: Yes, she has a plan. No, she\u2019s not sharing it. She is focused on this week, not spelling out what\u2019s next, but she made it clear her return wasn\u2019t a whim.<\/p>\n
Williams: \u201cI think I know what I want to do, but I don’t always want to talk about it. I’m just here for now, and who knows? Maybe there’s more. Like I said, I hold my cards close, but at the moment, I’m focused just on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
What does success look like right now?<\/p>\n
After a 16-month layoff and a serious health scare last year, her definition of success is less about results and more about mindset, self-belief and simply getting back on court.<\/p>\n
Williams: \u201cMy personal goal is to have fun I think right now and enjoy the moment, not put too much pressure on myself. I don’t know if I define success at this moment in any sort of way other than believing in myself and sticking to my process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s not easy to do, especially after a layoff. So those are my goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Does she still believe she can win?<\/p>\n
Yes. The way she talks about her game — the way she identifies as a \u201cbig hitter\u201d — suggests the competitive fire hasn\u2019t gone anywhere. The goal this week? Keep the ball in the court, but do it her way.<\/p>\n
Williams: \u201cI definitely feel I’ll play well. I’m still the same player. I’m a big hitter. I hit big. This is my brand [smiling].<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it’s about hitting big and actually putting it in. So this will be my effort: put it in the court. That’s my main goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did she ever seriously consider retiring?<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t use the word \u201cretirement,\u201d but she acknowledged just how serious her health issues were last year, including preparing for surgery and not even having tennis on her mind. It adds weight to how far she\u2019s come to get back.<\/p>\n
Williams: \u201cYeah, my health journey was very scary. You know, this time a year ago I was preparing to go to surgery. There was no way for me to play tennis or play the US Open. \u2026 I was just trying to get healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Has her mindset changed after a year away?<\/p>\n
Williams didn\u2019t dwell on emotions or nostalgia, but she did reflect on the rush of Wimbledon, even as a visitor, and how much she still loves the battle.<\/p>\n
Williams: \u201cI think just the pure fun of playing the game, the fun of the challenge, overcoming — when you play, you overcome so many challenges: your opponents, the conditions, a lot of times you have to overcome yourself. Those things are very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is she still motivated by responsibility to the sport?<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t reference legacy, but she did touch on her platform, especially when it comes to women\u2019s sports, and her sense of duty to represent, promote and show up.<\/p>\n
Williams: \u201cI always felt a big responsibility towards promoting tennis and also promoting women’s sports. \u2026 I’m in love with tennis, so to have an opportunity to have this platform to promote the game even now is a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. — Venus Williams met the press Sunday in Washington, where she\u2019ll play her first match in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428,1959],"class_list":{"0":"post-24951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24951","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=24951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}