Venus Williams, 45, wins 1st singles match in 2 years at DC Open - ESPN

WASHINGTON — Venus Williams wanted to send a message, to herself and to others, about coming back from a long layoff, about competing in a sport at age 45, about never giving up. Yes, there was something special about just being back on a tennis court Tuesday night.

There also was this: She really, really wanted to win.

And Williams did just that, becoming the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match in professional tennis, delivering some of her familiar big serves and groundstrokes while beating Peyton Stearns, 22 years her junior, by a 6-3, 6-4 score at the DC Open.

«Each week that I was training, I was, like, 'Oh, my God, I don't know if I'm good enough yet.' And then there would be weeks where I would leap forward,» Williams said after her first singles match in more than a year and first singles victory in nearly two. «And there would be two weeks where I was, like, 'Oh, God, it's not happening.' Even the week leading up, [I thought], 'Oh, my gosh, I need to improve so much more.' So it's all a head game.»

The only older woman to win a tour-level singles match was 47-year-old Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon in 2004.

The former No. 1-ranked Williams had not played singles in an official match since March 2024 in Miami, missing time while having surgery to remove uterine fibroids. She hadn't won in singles since August 2023 in Cincinnati. Until this week, she was listed by the WTA Tour as «inactive.»

«I'm just constantly praying for good health, so that way I could have an opportunity to play with good health,» Williams said. «A lot of this for me is being able to come back and try to play at a level [and] to play healthy.»

Backed by a crowd that clearly was there to see and support her at the