Venus Williams gets Wimbledon wild card at age 43

Venus Williams is set to make her 24th appearance in the singles draw at Wimbledon after the 43-year-old American was given a wild-card entry on Wednesday.

Williams is a five-time Wimbledon singles champion and was a finalist at the grass-court major in 2017, two decades after her debut at the All England Club.

Ranked 697th, Williams beat 48th-ranked Camila Giorgi 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (6) on Monday at the Birmingham Classic. It was her first victory over a player in the top 50 in nearly four years.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion next plays Jelena Ostapenko at the Wimbledon warm-up event.

Williams’ younger sister Serena is a seven-time Wimbledon champion. Serena Williams lost in the first round at last year’s tournament and soon after announced her decision to step away from tennis.

Ukrainian player Elina Svitolina and British players Heather Watson and Katie Boulter were also given wild cards for the women’s draw. David Goffin, a Belgian who reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2019 and 2022, was among of the men given wild cards.

Wimbledon begins on July 3.

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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Noah Lyles will test themselves ahead of this summer’s championship meets at the New York City Grand Prix on Saturday, live on NBC, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock.

Live coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET. Start lists are here.

McLaughlin-Levrone is entered in the flat 400m, two weeks after racing that event on the top level for the first time in four years.

She ranks third among Americans in the event by best time this year and is in strong position to finish in the top three at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships in two weeks, when the top three are in line to make