Venus Williams accepted a wild-card invitation to play singles at this month’s DC Open, which might be the seven-time Grand Slam champion’s first event in additional than a yr.
Williams, who turned 45 in June, is listed as “inactive” on the WTA Tour’s web site.
She hasn’t competed in an official match because the Miami Open in 2024.
“There’s one thing actually particular about D.C.: the vitality, the followers, the historical past,” Williams mentioned in an announcement launched Friday by organizers of the hard-court event, which begins with qualifying subsequent weekend. “This metropolis has at all times proven me a lot love, and I am unable to wait to compete there once more.”
Williams additionally performed within the nation’s capital in 2022.
“She has impressed folks around the globe together with her accomplishments on the courtroom and her visionary affect off the courtroom,” mentioned Mark Ein, chairman of the Mubadala Citi DC Open. “I understand how a lot it means to our D.C. followers and group to have the ability to watch her compete in particular person this summer season.”
In February, the event in Indian Wells, California, introduced that Williams can be making her return to the tour by taking part in there, then later backtracked and mentioned it turned out she would not.
Williams’ most up-to-date Grand Slam appearances got here in 2023, when she exited within the first spherical at Wimbledon — after slipping within the first set and hurting her proper knee — and the US Open.
Her 5 championships in singles on the All England Membership got here in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008 and she or he received the 2000 and 2001 US Open singles titles, too. She additionally received 14 Grand Slam doubles titles alongside her youthful sister, Serena, whose final event was the 2022 US Open, and a complete of 4 Olympic gold medals.
The older Williams mentioned in 2011 that she had been identified with Sjögren’s syndrome, an energy-sapping autoimmune illness that may trigger joint ache.