{"id":97461,"date":"2026-02-07T05:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=97461"},"modified":"2026-02-07T01:00:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T06:00:53","slug":"venus-williams-to-play-wta-austin-after-accepting-wildcard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/07\/venus-williams-to-play-wta-austin-after-accepting-wildcard\/","title":{"rendered":"Venus Williams to Play WTA Austin After Accepting Wildcard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">Former world No. 1 Venus Williams is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtatennis.com\/news\/4444532\/venus-williams-accepts-wild-card-into-atx-open-in-austin\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">set to compete at the WTA 250 event in Austin<\/a> later this month after accepting a wildcard into the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>The 45-year-old champion, who began her season by completing a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/01\/venus-williams-receives-australian-open-wild-card\/\" target=\"_self\">full Australian swing<\/a> and competing in three tournaments Down Under, is continuing her return to competition following the first Major of the year, with her next stop being Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n<h3>Recent Form and 2026 Season So Far<\/h3>\n<p>This will already be the fourth tournament Williams has entered in the 2026 season, surpassing her total of appearances in 2025 and 2024, when she played three and two events, respectively. It marks her most active season since 2023.<\/p>\n<p>After returning to competition last year in Washington, Williams memorably won her first match back. However, she has since lost six consecutive matches.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Venus Williams vs. Peyton Stearns | 2025 Washington Round 1 | WTA Match Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PSOIvGWxtc4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That run includes first-round defeats at all three tournaments she has played this season. The only set she has won during that stretch came in the first round of the Australian Open against Olga Danilovic, a match in which Williams was just two games away from victory before eventually running out of gas.<\/p>\n<h3>Tournament Announcement and Fan Reaction<\/h3>\n<p>The tournament announced the return of the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion across its social media platforms, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DUVj8tyDXDR\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">posting<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>AUSTIN\u2026 You. Won\u2019t. Believe. This. \ud83e\udd2f<\/p>\n<p>Venus Williams is coming to the ATX Open later this month \u2014 and we are beyond excited to welcome one of the greatest champions in women\u2019s tennis to Austin.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfc6 7-time Grand Slam singles champion<br \/>\n\ud83c\udfc6 49 WTA singles titles<br \/>\n\ud83e\udd47 4-time Olympic gold medalist<\/p>\n<p>A global icon. A trailblazer. A legend. Austin, get ready! \u2728<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Venus Williams\u2019 Statement<\/h3>\n<p>In response, <a href=\"https:\/\/atxopen.com\/global-tennis-icon-venus-williams-set-for-atx-open-debut\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Williams released the following statement<\/a> ahead of her first appearance at the tournament, with packed stands more or less guaranteed:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so excited to be heading to Austin and playing my first ATX Open. The city has such great energy, and I\u2019ve heard the fans are incredible. I\u2019m looking forward to playing both singles and doubles in front of such a passionate tennis community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 610px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBj94qAdtO\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3508px; aspect-ratio: 3508\/2480;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>As with most of her tournaments this season, Williams is expected to compete in doubles as well, although her partner has yet to be announced. She will be joined by a strong group of American players, including defending champion Jessica Pegula, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/26\/teenager-iva-jovic-australian-open-debut\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">rising youngster Iva Jovic<\/a>, and McCartney Kessler, all of whom are already confirmed for the event.<\/p>\n<p>It is increasingly looking as though all roads may lead to what could be the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/08\/26\/even-in-defeat-venus-williams-gives-new-york-a-final-classic\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">final chapter of one of the most remarkable careers<\/a> of the past two decades at this year\u2019s US Open. For now, however, fans can enjoy the opportunity to see a true icon of the sport back in action once again.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Syndication: Desert Sun\/USAToday Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former world No. 1 Venus Williams is set to compete at the WTA 250 event in Austin later this month after accepting a wildcard into the tournament. The 45-year-old champion, who began her season by completing a full Australian swing and competing in three tournaments Down Under, is continuing her return to competition following the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":87034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,9],"tags":[807,42826,70,15,18671,364],"class_list":["post-97461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wta","category-featured","category-news","tag-american-tennis","tag-atx-open","tag-venus-williams","tag-wta","tag-wta-austin","tag-wta-tour"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97461"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97492,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97461\/revisions\/97492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}