Venus Williams' rally to third set at U.S. Open provides a thrill

Venus Williams didn’t win on Monday night. But she didn’t lose, either.

At 45, she returned to the U.S. Open and showed enough flashes of her classic form to give fans a thrill in a first-round match against Karolina Muchova.

Muchova, the No. 11 seed, won, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1, as what many expected to be a mismatch turned into a night to remember at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“I didn’t win today, but I’m very proud of how I played,” Williams said later.

It was fun, and it more than justified the USTA’s decision to give the seven-time major champion and two-time Open champion — most recently 24 years ago! — a wild-card invitation to the event. Williams said she was grateful to be included in what was her first grand slam tournament since the 2023 Open.

“The lights are very bright out there,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a crowd that much on my side. Even when I lost those first two games, they were just still right there with me.

“It felt great. I knew going into this match that people in this stadium, people in the United States, people around the world, were really rooting for me and that felt great to have that kind of support.”

It was a tough draw for Williams, who entered the match ranked 602nd in the world, had played only three matches this season — winning one — and was facing a woman who has been in the past two Open semifinal rounds.

“I was stressed,” Muchova said in an on-court interview when it was over, acknowledging that she noticed almost everyone in the stadium was rooting for her to lose.

Big points for Williams were celebrated with raucous ovations. Big points for Muchova were met with silence.

“It was an unbelievable atmosphere,” Muchova said. “She’s such a legend of our sport ... Just glad I pulled it out.”

Williams arrived wearing all white, a classic look for a classic player. But when play began, it looked like she might be run out of the building by her 29-year-old opponent. She looked nervous, and overmatched.

“I just haven’t played a lot of matches, so I’m still finding everything,” Williams said of the slow start.

She lost the first two games and was down 0-40 in the third when she suddenly found her game, going up 3-2 and got to a break point before Muchova recovered. It was downhill from there as Williams struggled with her second serve. Muchova won the first set on Williams’ seventh double fault.

But Williams looked like a different player, and like the player she used to be, in the second set, which she opened by breaking Muchova.

Williams got her serve together and started striking balls like she did at the Open starting in the late 20th century.

“I play an exciting brand of tennis,” she said later. “It’s a lot of fun to go hog wild out there and hit as hard as I can. I’m happiest when I can just hit hard.”

Her serve continued to sizzle, and when she broke Muchova a second time to go up 5-2, the crowd afforded her a standing ovation.

The third set was all Muchova. Williams said she simply had not had enough reps to play at the level she had to.

“Those kinds of shots are about feel and less about training,” she said. “Those are the kinds of things that I just couldn’t stave off today.”

The match was Williams’ 101st at the Open, where she has appeared 25 times, starting in 1997, the first year of Arthur Ashe Stadium.

She recently had a 16-month hiatus from tennis that included surgery for uterine fibroids, one of many health issues over the years.

The best part of Monday, she said, was being able to play when feeling well.

Asked what she had proved to herself, she said: “I think for me getting back on the court was about giving myself a chance to play more healthy. When you play unhealthy, it’s in your mind. It’s not just how you feel. You get stuck in your mind, too.”

Then she paused, seemingly trying to control her emotions, and added quietly, “It was nice to be freer.”