Did Venus Williams deserve her U.S. Open wild card? Absolutely.
Venus Williams during practice at the 2023 US Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. Credit: Errol Anderson/Errol Anderson
Why is Venus Williams still on the court?
Why is a 43-year-old tennis great still battling players a fraction of her age when she could be on a yacht somewhere enjoying her retirement? This question was actually posed to the seven-time Grand Slam champion just two weeks in Cincinnati after she won a match against a top-20 opponent for the first time in four years.
“Where’s the yacht gonna be?” Williams said before adding. “Stop tempting me. I love this game. It’s what I do.”
It’s what she does and has been doing on the highest level for almost three decades. And, despite the critics who believe she shouldn’t have gotten wild card invitations to Wimbledon and the U.S. Open this year, Williams should be applauded, not questioned, for wanting to do something she loves for as long as she can.
“I would hand her out wild cards on a silver platter,” tennis great and ESPN analyst Chris Evert said last week.
Williams deserves the wild card bid she received in order to play in this tournament, just by virtue of what the three-time U.S. Open winner had meant to the tournament over the years. She deserves to be playing tonight on prime time in Arthur Ashe Stadium Tuesday night when she takes on Belgian Greet Minnen in her first-round match.
Williams appeared in her first U.S. Open final on the same court 26 years ago. Sporting beads in her hair and braces on her teeth, the 17-year-old Williams won the hearts of U.S. Open fans even though she lost the title to Martina Hingis.
Likely, it is the memory of that exuberant teenager with the world ahead of her that makes it so hard for some to watch the player Williams is today. Because there’s something about watching a great player on the downside of his or her career which clearly makes people uncomfortable.
Gone are the days when fans were fine with seeing Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays stumbling around the field in their final seasons. Fans want their heroes to go out on top, or near the top with some sort of glitzy goodbye celebration.
It was painful for Tom Brady fans to watch him flounder around last season, instead of calling it quits a year earlier. No one waxes nostalgic for Michael Jordan’s two years as a Washington Wizard, even though he continued to average 20-plus points a game.
Derek Jeter and Serena Williams were clearly past their prime when they said goodbye to their fans. Yet, the hoopla and celebration surrounding their goodbye was so mesmerizing, so nostalgic filled that few seemed to have a problem with it.
Williams enters Tuesday’s match ranked 410 in the world. Before her win in Cincinnati she had previously lost her last 10 matches against top-20 players with her last win coming Kiki Bertens in 2019. Williams last Grand Slam championship came in 2008 when she won at Wimbledon for the fifth time. Her most recent Grand Slam final was in 2017 at Wimbledon.
Williams has suffered a series of injures, most at the start of the season, that have limited her to just nine matches this year. Most recently, Williams knee has been bothering her and caused he to drop out of a WTA event in Cleveland on Aug. 20.
Still, Williams keeps pushing herself.
“The last few years have been difficult in terms of injuries and I want to be able to be out here and be strong and be myself and that’s important to me,” Williams told an interviewer after winning in Cincinnati. “I’m trying to get there.”
And that alone is worth cheering. Instead of missing the great player that Williams once was, we need to appreciate the player she is. We need to appreciate Williams for having the stamina and grit it takes to be the player that she is, someone who at age 43 who isn’t obsessed by nostalgia and memory but wants to keep doing what she loves for as long as she can.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
