Venus Williams fell in straight sets to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the second round of the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington.
The 45-year-old became the oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova in 2004 after an opening-round victory over Peyton Stearns on Tuesday.
Williams took an early 2-1 lead against Frech, but the 27-year-old responded with a dominant run of seven straight games en route to a 6-2 6-2 win.
“Oh, I had so much fun. Definitely not the result I wanted, but still a learning experience. The part about sport [and] life is that you never stop learning,” Williams said.
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Venus Williams made a winning return to the sport in the Mubadala Citi DC Open as she and Hailey Baptiste progressed in the Women’s Doubles
“I got to play a lot of matches here and that definitely was a plus. The fans in DC are just epic. I couldn’t have been happier with my first week back.”
In Washington, William played four matches, two singles and two doubles, over the course of four days.
“I feel like I ran out of gas today, unfortunately,” Williams said after the loss to Frech. “I tried to find the energy, and I didn’t find it.”
Poland’s Frech has previously reached the fourth round of the Australian Open. “I can’t even imagine how she pushes herself,” she said of Williams. “It’s really amazing.”
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Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams has refused to rule out a full-time return to tennis ahead of her comeback from a year’s absence at the DC Open
Williams has also accepted a wild card to play in the Cincinnati Open next month.
“There are so many learnings from here. I know exactly what I need to work on, where I can improve,” she said.
“The good news is I’m always in control of the point. The important part is to put the ball in.”
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