Venus Williams receives Australian Open wild card for first appearance since 2021

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Venus Williams is set to play her first Grand Slam tennis match outside of New York since 2023, after receiving a wild card into the Australian Open. The seven-time Grand Slam champion, who last year played three U.S. hard-court tournaments, including the U.S. Open, will make her first appearance in Melbourne since 2021.

Williams, 45, won her first-round match that year before losing 6-1, 6-0 to Sara Errani of Italy in the second. She has twice reached the final at the Australian Open, in 2003 and 2017, losing to her sister, Serena, on both occasions.

After playing just two matches in 2024 and not featuring at any of the four majors, Williams was not expected to play in 2025. But after receiving and then declining a wild card into the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif. in March, Williams made a surprise return to the court in July, with a wild card into the D.C. Open in Washington, D.C.

She sensationally won her opening-round match against compatriot Peyton Stearns, despite not even having a world ranking, and during a news conference at the following event, the Cincinnati Open, she told the tennis world not to “rule her out” for 2026.

Williams then received another wild card at the U.S. Open. She lost to No. 13 seed Karolina Muchová in the first round of singles, but made a memorable run to the women’s doubles quarterfinals with Leylah Fernandez of Canada. Her last Grand Slam match outside the U.S. was at Wimbledon in 2023.

Williams’ sister, 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena, has also given herself the opportunity to return to tennis by reentering the sport’s anti-doping testing pool, but that could not happen until April. The 44-year-old in December denied any comeback, but reentry into the pool entails providing whereabouts for every day of the year and the possibility of random testing.

Venus is the second American woman to receive a wild card into the first Grand Slam of 2026, which begins Jan. 18. 24-year-old Elizabeth Mandlik won the U.S. Tennis Association’s wild card challenge for the tournament, which rewards the best-performing player in a five-week window late in the season.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Tennis, Women's Tennis

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