{"id":31998,"date":"2025-07-23T20:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T20:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/31998\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T20:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T20:04:13","slug":"venus-williams-confirms-engagement-after-winning-1st-singles-match-in-2-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/31998\/","title":{"rendered":"Venus Williams confirms engagement after winning 1st singles match in 2 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venus Williams<\/a> is officially engaged!<\/p>\n

The tennis superstar, 45, confirmed she and actor Andrea Preti, 37, are planning to marry in an interview after winning her first singles match in two years at the Mubadala Citi DC Open Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

“My fianc\u00e9 is here and he really encouraged me to keep playing,” Williams said in a post-match interview<\/a> with The Tennis Letter.<\/p>\n

\"PHOTO:<\/p>\n

Andrea Preti and Venus Williams attend the photocall ahead of the Dsquared2 F\/W 2025 – 2026 runway during the Milan Fashion Week – Womenswear Fall\/Winter 2025\/2026 at on February 25, 2025 in Milan, Italy.<\/p>\n

Daniele Venturelli\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Preti, an actor, director, writer and model, is known for his work in the 2015 film “One More Day” and most recently starred in the 2023 film “Temptation.”<\/p>\n

Williams defeated 23-year-old Peyton Stearns, the No. 35 player in the world, 6-3, 6-4, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Venus Williams reacts during a women’s single match against Peyton Stearns (not pictured) on day 2 of the Mubadala Citi DC Open 2025 at William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center on July 22, 2025 in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

Scott Taetsch\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Her comeback didn’t come easy, however, as Williams told The Tennis Letter.<\/p>\n

“There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill,” Williams said. “Do you know how hard it is to play tennis? You guys don\u2019t know how much work goes into this, like it\u2019s 9 to 5 except you\u2019re running the whole time, lifting weights and just like dying and then you repeat it the next day. So [Preti] encouraged me to get through this and it\u2019s wonderful to be here.”<\/p>\n

The win was especially sweet as Williams said it was the first time Preti had seen her play.<\/p>\n

The couple were first linked in 2024 and then sparked engagement rumors after Williams was seen wearing a ring this February, according to People<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Williams will face 27-year-old Magdalena Frech of Poland, the No. 24 player in the world, in her next match Thursday.<\/p>\n

ABC News has reached out to Preti’s team for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venus Williams is officially engaged! The tennis superstar, 45, confirmed she and actor Andrea Preti, 37, are planning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-31998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31998","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=31998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}