Venus Williams makes winning doubles return at 45 in Washington

Venus Williams marked her remarkable return to tennis with a dominant doubles victory at the Washington Open, partnering fellow American Hailey Baptiste to beat Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue 6-3, 6-1.

The 45-year-old seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, playing her first competitive match in 16 months, looked sharp on court despite not competing since the Miami Open in March 2024. Her last victory came at the Cincinnati Open in August 2023.

“It was inspiring to be out here,” Williams told Sky Sports. “I love this game and I’m still hitting it big.”

Williams accepted a wildcard into the tournament and will also feature in the singles competition, where she faces Peyton Stearns in the first round on Tuesday.

Venus teams up with Baptiste

Playing doubles for the first time in three years, Williams humorously suggested she wished she had partnered Baptiste earlier in her career instead of her legendary sister Serena Williams.

“From the first point, I could see we were going to be a good team. We should have started playing years ago, right? Serena was just in the way,” she joked.

Williams has 14 major doubles titles with Serena and remains one of the most decorated players in tennis history.

Raducanu & Rybakina save match points in thrilling win

Elsewhere in Washington, Emma Raducanu and Elena Rybakina survived a scare to beat fourth seeds Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 11-9.

The British-Kazakh pair fought back after losing five straight games in the first set and saved four match points in the deciding tie-break before sealing victory on debut together.

Evans & Norrie progress in men’s singles

In the men’s singles:

• Dan Evans recovered from a set down to beat Belgium’s Zizou Bergs 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. He next faces American Alex Michelsen.

• Cameron Norrie defeated fellow Briton Billy Harris 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), but now faces French Open semi-finalist and second seed Lorenzo Musetti.

Evans, who won his first ATP 500 title in Washington two years ago, said:

“I didn’t just want to take the wildcard and lose. I felt I needed to pay them back and try to ‘defend’ my title because I couldn’t last year.”

Meanwhile, British number one Katie Boulter exited the women’s singles after a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Maria Sakkari.