Venus Williams, 45, Granted Wild Card Entry to 2025 US Open

Williams will take part in a Grand Slam for the first time in two years as she continues her comeback attempt.

Venus Williams celebrates her win over Peyton Stearns during a match at the Citi Open tennis tournament in Washington on July 22, 2025. Nick Wass/AP Photo

The 2025 U.S. Open begins on Aug. 24 in New York City, and the fourth and final major of the tennis season will have a little extra star power. That’s because 45-year-old Venus Williams, one of the most accomplished players in the history of the sport, will compete at the Grand Slam thanks to a wild card entry. It will mark Williams’s first singles Grand Slam competition of any kind since taking part in the 2023 U.S. Open.

The U.S. Tennis Association granted Williams the wild card as she made her return to tennis earlier this summer. After not playing any matches in over a calendar year, Williams took part in the Mubadala Citi DC Open in July, where she defeated Peyton Stearns in the first round in straight sets. Williams would then lose her second-round match to 5-seed Magdalena French. Also competing in doubles at that event, Williams and partner Hailey Baptiste, who is nearly half of Williams’s age at 23 years old, won their first match before dropping their second.

The seven-time major winner then played in the Cincinnati Open last week, where she lost her opening match to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. However, Williams’s comeback attempt did enough in the eyes of the USTA to warrant an exemption into a Grand Slam she won twice before, going back-to-back in 2000 and 2001.

Williams turned 45 in June, and per the International Tennis Federation, she will become the oldest singles entrant at the U.S. Open since 1981. That year, 47-year-old Renee Richards lost her opening match 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 to 17-year-old Andrea Leand.

Living Life ‘on My Terms’

She discussed why she continues to play at this advanced age during a media session before the Cincinnati Open.

“For me, I think a lot of the motivation is just to come back and play at the best health that I can,” Williams said. “I never stopped hitting the ball, even when I was away, not as intensely as if you were playing tournaments. But I was still going out there.

“At the end of the day, you have to live your life on your own terms. Your terms should be yours. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says or what anyone else thinks,” she said.

“If you get to live life on your own terms, it’s a life well lived, and I firmly believe in that. I do what I do because I want to live life the way I want to—unapologetically and with no regrets, on my terms.”

A winner of 49 career singles tournaments, Williams already knew she would be competing at the 2025 U.S. Open, albeit she initially thought it would be in mixed doubles only. She had previously been granted a wild card to take part in that event at the U.S. Open, and she will play mixed doubles at the event for the first time since 1998, when she and partner Justin Gimelstob made the quarterfinals.

Turning Pro in 1994

Williams has two career titles in mixed doubles—both Grand Slam victories—along with 22 wins in women’s doubles, including 14 Grand Slam wins. In a career that dates back to turning pro in 1994, she has spent 11 weeks ranked as the No. 1 player in the world. Currently, Williams is ranked 654th in the world.

In terms of the era she competed in, and still competes in, only her younger sister, Serena, is in a class above. The older Williams ranks second all-time, to Serena, in WTA career prize money. Since the turn of the century, only Serena (22) has more Grand Slam singles victories than her sister’s seven wins.

When Serena Williams (R) played her sister Venus Williams in the 2001 U.S. Open finals, it marked the first time in 117 years that sisters faced each other in a major final. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Venus Williams collected five Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon and another two on these same hard courts at the U.S. Open. However, it’s been 24 years since she prevailed at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and it’s been 17 years since she has won a major of any kind. Her last finals appearance at a Grand Slam came at the 2017 Australian Open, when a 36-year-old Venus lost to Serena.

Venus Williams enters the 2025 U.S. Open having played exactly 100 singles matches at the tournament, going 79-21. She failed to win a match in each of her last three appearances at the event (2020, 2022-23). This will be her 94th Grand Slam singles appearance, extending her own record for both men’s and women’s players.

While Williams will get to compete at the final Grand Slam of the year, another big name will not. Grigor Dimitrov, a former No. 3-ranked player on the men’s side and 2019 U.S. Open semifinalist, withdrew from the tournament on Tuesday. Dimitrov suffered a chest injury at Wimbledon last month, forcing him to retire mid-match, despite leading world No. 1 Jannik Sinner. Dimitrov has made three Grand Slam semifinals in his career, but his search for his first Grand Slam victory will be put on hold until 2026.

Mixed doubles play for the 2025 U.S. Open will begin on Aug. 19, with singles play then starting on Aug. 24. The tournament will be held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, N.Y.