Venus Williams Reveals: "I Thought I Would Say No" – The Astonishing Behind-the-Scenes of Her Duo with Fernandez
At 45 years old, the return of Venus Williams to the North American courts this summer had caused a huge wave of admiration on the WTA tour.
Indeed, after Washington and Cincinnati, she appeared in singles at New York to compete in the US Open against Muchova in the first round.
Unfortunately, she lost in three sets (6-3, 2-6, 6-1). However, Venus left the court, relieved, convinced that her US Open was over. She recounts:
"I left the court telling myself: That's it, I can finally relax. I was proud of my performance but I was already a bit out of the running."
However, at that very moment, a proposal came: to play women's doubles with Leylah Fernandez, whose partner had withdrawn at the last moment.
Venus's instinctive reaction? Refusal. "I thought I would say no, because often players were so tense with me that they couldn't play properly," she explains.
But on the way back, a lightbulb moment. "I told myself: why not try?"
This little phrase, slipped in as an obvious choice, would change the rest of the tournament.
Result: one of the best stories of the US Open 2025. Venus and Leylah would fight their way to an explosive quarterfinal against the No. 1 seeds Siniakova/Townsend.
