Venus Williams praised her twentieth commemoration at the US Open as the competition commended 20 years of Arthur Ashe Stadium, where she asserted two of her seven Grand Slam titles.
Williams was a 17-year-old upstart with dots in her hair when she energized to overcome Latvia’s Larisa Neiland 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 in the first round of the 1997 US Open in her Flushing Meadows make a big appearance on her way to her first Grand Slam last, which she lost to Martina Hingis.
“It has been 20 wonderful years,” Williams told the crowd after a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 first-round victory over Slovakian qualifier Viktoria Kuzmova. “I’m not sure there are going to be 20 more.”
Since Williams turned into the main unseeded US Open ladies’ finalist since 1958, she has won the 2000 and 2001 US Opens and five Wimbledon crowns, including her latest Slam title in 2008.
In any case, this season, at age 37, Williams has made things the same as before, achieving the finals at Wimbledon and the Australia Open. She lost to Spain’s Garbine Muguruza on the All England grass and to her pregnant sister Serena at Melbourne last January.
She achieved Arthur Ashe Stadium having played in two Grand Slam finals in a year out of the blue since 2003, wondering about the biggest scene in tennis from her plane window.
“It’s massive. When I was flying in, we flew right over it,” Williams said. “A certain excitement I get to play there. It’s a privilege. It’s an honor. I take it quite seriously. Everybody does.”
Asked what her career timetable might be, the oldest woman in the US Open said, “I don’t know. We’ll see. I have no plans. Zero”
All things considered, she has one. With 23-time Grand Slam champ Serena conceiving an offspring in the following couple of weeks, Venus will turn into an auntie out of the blue as a grown-up. It’s one of only a handful couple of experiences the sisters haven’t possessed the capacity to completely partake in their vocations.
“It’s definitely a different experience, especially for she and I, because we spent our whole lives so focused on work,” Venus said. “So when you have an experience that is not work, it’s pretty intense. It’s a completely different experience for both of us.”
Visit existence without Serena has Venus investing more energy down Memory Lane than only a historic point night at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“I definitely have adjusted at this point. It takes time,” Venus said. “There are moments where you have very distinct memories of togetherness.
“I’ve been able to remember those and be fond or have some longing or happy memories, all those feelings. But the plan is hopefully that it won’t be forever.”
