Williams returned to tennis last season after a 16-month break, winning one of her four tour-level matches before starting 2026 with a first-round defeat by 53rd-ranked Pole Magda Linette as a wildcard at the Auckland Classic last week.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Granted another wildcard for the Hobart International, world number 576 Williams was also eliminated in the first round against 38-year-old German Tatjana Maria, a match featuring players with the highest combined age in WTA history.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“It’s been five years since I was here. They flew by, and I’m super, super grateful for the opportunity from Tennis Australia,” Williams told reporters at Melbourne Park on Saturday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Grateful for the opportunity to play in front of the fans. I have just received so much support in the tournaments leading up, walking around the city and everything. My hope is to play my best.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The allocation of discretionary wildcards has stoked debate at the Australian Open, with home player Nick Kyrgios in the spotlight before his decision to pull out of the men’s singles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Though a huge drawcard at his home Grand Slam, Kyrgios played only four completed singles matches last season and is ranked outside the top 600. Organisers subsequently gave 40-year-old former champion Stan Wawrinka a wildcard for the men’s singles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Some fans have questioned whether Williams, who last won a Grand Slam match in 2021, deserves a wildcard ahead of an up-and-coming player, but former Grand Slam champions Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters strongly backed the American’s participation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Twice a finalist at Melbourne Park, Williams will surpass the record held by Japan\u2019s Kimiko Date, who was 44 when she lost in the first round of the 2015 Australian Open.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22542,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-22541","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Seven-times Grand Slam champion Venus Williams thanked Australian Open organisers on Saturday for giving her a wildcard that will see the 45-year-old American become the oldest woman ever to compete in the singles main draw.'","published_date":null,"news_description":"Seven-times Grand Slam champion Venus Williams thanked Australian Open organisers on Saturday for giving her a wildcard that will see the 45-year-old American become the oldest woman ever to compete in the singles main draw.'","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25804,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22541\/revisions\/25804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}