Venus Williams acknowledged the source of support her husband Andrea Preti is for her in the aftermath of her disappointing ATX Open campaign. The 45-year-old American tennis legend took part in both singles and doubles categories at the WTA 250 hardcourt event in Austin, Texas, and suffered heartbreaking first-round exits.
The former World No. 1 and seven-time singles Major champion received a wildcard entry into the ATX Open main draw. In the first round of singles action at the tournament, Ajla Tomljanovic dashed the 45-year-old’s hopes of progress with a dominant 6-4, 6-1 win. Interestingly, Tomljanovic is the player who ended Williams’ sister Serena’s legendary singles career at the 2022 US Open.
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Next, in doubles, Venus Williams and partner Peyton Stearns were downed 6-2, 7-6(5) by top seeds Taylor Townsend and Storm Hunter. Following her exit from the ATX Open, Williams took to her Instagram Stories and shared a post showing her on a practice court with husband Andrea Preti encouraging her. Preti, an actor, producer and model, could be seen holding a racket as well.
“Wouldn’t that be cool?” – Venus Williams makes feelings known on potentially teaming up with sister Serena again
During a press conference at the 2026 ATX Open, Venus Williams was asked if she and sister Serena have plans of becoming a doubles team once more following the latter’s sensational reinstatement to the WTA Tour. Williams though, while acknowledging that it would be ‘cool’ if a reunion does happen, wondered if her sister has been practicing enough to make a return to competitive tennis.
“Oh man, wouldn’t that be cool? I never see her practicing though. I don’t know where she’s doing it. I think to come back, you have to get out there. So, we’ll see if she can put some work in. I mean, of course, playing for exercise is nice. There’s a lot of hours that goes into it, so we’ll see what happens,” Williams said.
The sisters were a terrific women’s doubles team in their prime, as they won 22 career doubles titles together, including 14 Majors. They also won Olympic gold on three occasions as a pair. The last time the world saw them team up was at the 2022 US Open, where the Czech duo of Linda Noskova and Lucie Hradecka eliminated them.
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Edited by Sudipto Pati