Venus Williams
Venus Williams is a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion and four-time Olympic gold medallist who, at 46, accepted a wild card into the 2026 US Open singles main draw. She is the oldest woman in that draw since Renee Richards in 1981, and she is also back in the doubles with her sister Serena.
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Where does Venus Williams live?
Venus Williams is based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, the area she and her family have been publicly associated with for years. She also spends time in Italy, where her husband Andrea Preti is from and where the couple held their first wedding ceremony in 2025. Exact addresses are private and not something we will speculate about.
What is Venus Williams's nationality?
American. She was born in Lynwood, California, on June 17, 1980, and has represented the United States for her entire career, including four Olympic gold medals (Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008, London 2012) and a mixed doubles silver in Rio 2016.
How old is Venus Williams?
Venus Williams is 46 years old. She was born on June 17, 1980, and turned professional in 1994 at the age of 14, which makes her 2026 US Open appearance part of one of the longest careers in the history of professional tennis.
How tall is Venus Williams?
Venus Williams is 6 feet 1 inch tall (185 cm). That height, paired with an exceptional wingspan, is a large part of why her serve was one of the most feared in the women's game for two decades.
Is Venus Williams playing the 2026 US Open?
Yes. The USTA gave her one of the women's singles wild cards, announced in the week of August 19, 2026. At 46 she is the oldest woman in the US Open singles main draw since Renee Richards in 1981, and it is the tournament where she won back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001. Sources: USTA, Olympics.com.
Who does Venus Williams play in the first round of the US Open 2026?
Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, in an all-American first round scheduled as a night-session match on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the end of day one (August 30 into the early hours of August 31 New York time). Kenin has had a difficult season herself, so this was one of the more open first-round matches on the card. Sources: US Open, ATP/WTA schedules.
Are Venus and Serena Williams playing doubles at the US Open 2026?
Yes. The sisters received a doubles wild card, announced by the US Open on August 26, 2026. It is their first appearance as a pair at Flushing Meadows since 2022. They played their first competitive match together since then at the Cincinnati Open, where they lost in the first round to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns 6-2, 1-6, [8-10]. Sources: US Open, WTA.
How many Grand Slam titles has Venus Williams won?
Seven in singles: five Wimbledon titles and two US Opens (2000 and 2001). She has also won 14 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, every one of them alongside her sister Serena, and two mixed doubles majors. Her career total is 49 WTA singles titles and 22 doubles titles.
How many Olympic gold medals does Venus Williams have?
Four. She won singles and doubles gold at Sydney 2000, then doubles gold with Serena at Beijing 2008 and London 2012. She added a mixed doubles silver at Rio 2016 with Rajeev Ram, which makes her one of the most decorated tennis players in Olympic history.
What is Venus Williams's ranking in 2026?
Low, and it is a function of how little she has played rather than a ranking she is defending. She was around No. 479 in the WTA rankings in April 2026 and has spent most of the last few seasons off tour with injuries and surgery. That is exactly why she needed a wild card to get into the US Open main draw. Sources: WTA.
Why is Venus Williams still playing at 46?
By her own account, because she wanted to come back on her own terms rather than fade out through injury. She returned to competition in 2025 after a long absence, played the doubles at Roland-Garros 2026 with Hailey Baptiste, and has framed 2026 as a milestone season rather than a farewell tour. She has not won a tour-level match yet this year, and she has been open that the wins are not the only point.
What illness does Venus Williams have?
She was diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome in 2011, an autoimmune condition whose most common symptoms are dry eyes, dry mouth, joint pain and severe fatigue. She has spoken publicly about it for years and changed her diet to manage it. In 2025 she also disclosed that she had lived with uterine fibroids and an adenomyoma for a long time before having surgery, and she has campaigned for women to get pelvic pain taken seriously. Sources: Sjogren's Foundation, published interviews.
Is Venus Williams married?
Yes. She is married to Andrea Preti, an Italian-Danish actor and producer. They met at a Gucci show during Milan Fashion Week in 2024, he proposed in Tuscany in January 2025, and they married in Ischia, Italy, on September 18, 2025, followed by a legal ceremony in Palm Beach, Florida. Sources: ABC News, TODAY.
Does Venus Williams have children?
No. She has spoken publicly about her health and about fibroid surgery, and she has not announced any children. Her sister Serena has two daughters.
What businesses does Venus Williams run?
Two that she has built over many years: EleVen, her activewear label, and V Starr, her interior design firm based in Florida. She has also been an investor and a persistent public campaigner for equal prize money in tennis, a fight she helped win at Wimbledon in 2007.
What is Venus Williams's net worth?
Financial media typically put it in the range of 90 to 100 million dollars, built from prize money, endorsements, EleVen and V Starr. These are journalistic estimates, not disclosed figures, and no public figure's exact net worth is confirmed to the dollar.
How many times has Venus Williams won Wimbledon?
Five times: 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008. She also reached the final in 2002, 2003, 2009 and 2017. Wimbledon grass, and the way it rewards a big flat serve and a first strike off the return, was always the surface that suited her best.
Who is older, Venus or Serena Williams?
Venus, by a little over a year. Venus was born on June 17, 1980 and Serena on September 26, 1981. Venus turned professional first, in 1994, and reached world No. 1 in 2002.
Venus Williams walked back onto Arthur Ashe Stadium on the opening night of the 2026 US Open at 46 years old, holding a wild card, playing the tournament she won in 2000 and 2001. She is the oldest woman in a US Open singles main draw since Renee Richards in 1981. Her first-round opponent, Sofia Kenin, is an all-American draw and a former Australian Open champion who has had her own difficult season, which made it one of the few genuinely unpredictable matches on the card.
The context matters more than the result. Williams turned professional in 1994, won her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2000, and has now been playing top-level tennis across five decades of tennis calendars. Seven Grand Slam singles titles, 14 more in doubles with Serena, four Olympic golds and 49 tour titles is a career that closed a long time ago by any normal measure. The 2026 season is something else: a set of appearances she has chosen, at Roland-Garros in doubles with Hailey Baptiste, at Cincinnati alongside Serena, and now in New York in both draws.
Her ranking, around No. 479 in April 2026, tells you how little she has played rather than how she is hitting the ball. The last decade has been shaped by health: Sjogren’s syndrome, diagnosed in 2011, an autoimmune condition that left her too exhausted to train at times, and then years of pelvic pain that turned out to be uterine fibroids and an adenomyoma. She had surgery in 2024 and spoke about it publicly in 2025, largely to tell other women not to accept being told the pain was normal. That advocacy, alongside her long campaign for equal prize money at Wimbledon, is the part of her record that has nothing to do with a scoreboard.
Off court she runs EleVen, the activewear label she founded, and V Starr, an interior design firm in Florida. She married the Italian-Danish actor and producer Andrea Preti in Ischia in September 2025, then again in a Palm Beach courthouse for the paperwork. The doubles wild card with Serena, announced on August 26, is the sentimental headline of this US Open: the sisters back on the same side of the net at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2022, at a tournament they have between them won six times in singles.
