Venus Williams bows out of DC doubles but will play Cincinnati as wild card

WASHINGTON, DC—Venus Williams suffered her first loss of the week at the Mubadala Citi DC Open, losing her doubles quarterfinal with Hailey Baptiste to Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai, 6-4, 3-6, 10-6, but got some good news during the match when it was announced she had been awarded a wild card into next month’s Cincinnati Open.

Now, Williams is not only still alive in singles at the DC Open, but the former world No. 1 is also scheduled to play at least one more tournament before the US Open, joining fellow American Caty McNally among the singles wild card recipients. Williams is also on the entry list to compete at the US Open mixed doubles tournament with partner Reilly Opelka.

The wild card seven-time Grand Slam champion is less than 24 hours removed from shocking Peyton Stearns, 6-3, 6-4, her first WTA-level singles win since 2023, but was unable to win a second straight doubles match on Wednesday as the No. 2 seeds Townsend and Zhang were ultimately able to edge through a match tiebreaker.

Williams, who became the oldest woman to win a WTA match since Martina Navratilova in 2004, partnered Baptiste to kick off the tournament with a strong win over fellow wild cards Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue, having first met when Baptiste, a DMV native, was just getting into tennis as a young child.

“I went to the Kastles one year with the WTEF, and I got to play doubles with Venus there. I think I was four or five years old,” Baptiste recalled during her Media Day press conference on Saturday.

It was later announced that Baptiste would partner Williams in the doubles draw, the pair lighting up the John A. Harris Grandstand and attracting stars like NBA legend Kevin Durant.

“I was, like, ‘I want to show KD what I can do. Hit the ball to me.’ They hit every ball to you,” Williams said, joking with Baptiste in press on Monday. “I was, like, ‘Okay, whatever. However we win is fine.’”

Baptiste lost in the singles to 2020 US Open champion Sofia Kenin, but can take heart from continuing a strong run of form that has helped her achieve a Top 50 debut and gain insight from a multi-major and Olympic champion.

Williams will next take the court on Thursday for a second-round singles match against No. 5 seed Magdalena Freçh.