Venus Williams pens optimistic Instagram post after Wimbledon defeat

WATCH: Venus Williams was beaten by Elina Svitolina in the first round at Wimbledon.

Venus Williams is looking on the bright side after her first-round loss at Wimbledon.

The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion penned a heartfelt Instagram post Tuesday, 24 hours after a cloud of disappointment hung over her defeat to Elina Svitolina on Centre Court, in which she expressed renewed optimism towards the future of her competitive career. Williams slipped early in the first set against Svitolina and her movement was hampered in an eventual 6-4, 6-3 defeat.

While it would've been easy for the former world No. 1 to leave the All England Club embittered after the latest in a litany of injury setbacks that have plagued her in recent years, Williams expressed that, after having some time to reflect, she was departing as just the opposite.

“I’m not sure how I managed to smile in this moment but I don’t remember my face looking like this…pleasant…I felt just the opposite,” Williams wrote. “I felt like everything slipped away from me so quickly and I was disappointed that I wasn’t stronger to pull out the match despite the circumstances.

“I’m happy I can look back at this moment and see I smiled. I felt like crying. But as an FYI, I didn’t cry. I don’t have time for crying when I’m trying to get to the next level. I sat in the locker room right after thinking … to figure out what I could learn from this and plotting how I was going to be better.”

At age 43 and No. 558 in the WTA rankings, Williams began her 24th Wimbledon campaign as a wild card and sidestepped questions in her pre-tournament press conference about any pending retirement plans, joking with reporters about the WTA tour’s great insurance benefits and how she could see herself playing until age 50.

The American has played six matches and four tournaments this year (already better than the 0-4 mark she posted in 2022) despite missing nearly six months as a result of a hamstring injury she suffered in the first tournament of the season in Auckland, New Zealand.

After tying Martina Navratilova with 355 Grand Slam main-draw matches played, second most for women in the Open Era behind her sister Serena Williams, at Wimbledon, Williams will next turn her attention to the summer hard-court season in the hopes of another US Open appearance. It would be her 24th main-draw showing in New York.

“I believe in less time crying and more time working,” she said in closing. “I also believe in being a good sport. You win and lose in life. You can’t cry when you are losing. You have to get to learning. It’s a bad sport if you can’t at least try to be a good sports person in the moment of defeat and allow your opponent to enjoy their moment of victory … until your moment comes.”