Thirteen minutes past midnight. August 31, 2026. Venus Williams walks out onto Arthur Ashe Stadium for a first-round match at the US Open.
No match in the tournament's history had ever started later. She was 46, playing her 26th US Open, in the draw on a wild card. Sofia Kenin beat her 6-2, 7-6. The last ball was struck at 2:01 a.m.
Afterward, somebody asked whether she had thought about retiring.
"I don't think I should have to."
Venus Williams, asked whether she had thought about retiring, US Open, August 31, 2026
That was the whole answer. Every tennis fan knows the seven Grand Slam singles titles. Fewer know that since 2002 she has also been running a design firm, and for most of those years a clothing company too, a lot of it between matches.
V Starr
In 2002, Williams started an interior design company in South Florida and called it V Starr Interiors. Real estate in the region was booming at the time. She later told Hospitality Design that she wanted to be part of it.
It was not new to her. She had been drawn to it since she was a girl. While she was on tour, she took classes at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and fit them around tournaments. In 2007 she finished an associate degree in fashion design.
V Starr started with homes. About seven years in, she moved the firm into hotels and commercial spaces. It has designed presidential and executive suites at the InterContinental Miami, and a 15-court tennis lounge at the Midtown Athletic Club in Chicago. By 2017 the firm, based in Jupiter, Florida, had eight full-time designers.
"Interior design helped me find my off-the-court identity and I am just as passionate about it."
Venus Williams, Home Accents Today, May 2017
One better than 10
The clothing line came next. In 2007 she debuted EleVen, a collection of tennis dresses and sportswear, through the retail chain Steve & Barry's. In 2008 the chain went bankrupt, and the line went down with it.
She did not let it go. In 2012 she relaunched EleVen on her own terms. She showed a Spring 2013 collection at New York Fashion Week and had it made in downtown Los Angeles.
The name is a number. Eleven: one more than a perfect 10.
She sketches the designs herself, then works with a design team and a manufacturing partner. She has said she tries on every sample. Some pieces carried short messages in her own handwriting, like Beat 'Em and Bring It. The idea was clothes that work on a court, in a gym and on the street.
The body
In 2011, Williams pulled out of the US Open before her second-round match. She had been diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue and muscle and joint pain. She kept playing for years after the diagnosis.
Then came more time away. After a match in Miami in March 2024, she did not play an official singles match for more than a year. During that stretch she had surgery to remove uterine fibroids.
Forty-five in D.C.
July 22, 2025, Washington, D.C. She came back at 45 and beat Peyton Stearns, who is 22 years younger, 6-3, 6-4.
That win made her the second-oldest woman ever to win a tour-level singles match. Only Martina Navratilova, who last won at 47 in 2004, was older. Williams admitted afterward that she had not been sure she was ready.
"Each week that I was training, I was, like, 'Oh, my God, I don't know if I'm good enough yet.'"
Venus Williams, Washington, D.C., July 22, 2025, via NBC Sports and the Associated Press
In January 2026, at 45, she became the oldest woman ever to play in the Australian Open singles main draw. On January 18 she took the first set from Olga Danilovic in a tiebreak and led 4-0 in the third. Danilovic won the last six games. Williams said afterward that she was proud of her effort and was playing better with each match.
The sisters
Then the summer gave fans something they had not seen in four years. Serena Williams came back to the tour at 44, and on August 17, in Cincinnati, the sisters played doubles together for the first time since the 2022 US Open.
They lost in a match tiebreak, 10-8, after coming back from 0-6 down in it. At the US Open in September they lost in a match tiebreak again, this time after leading it 5-0.
Still here
The loss to Kenin, the one that started after midnight, was her 15th straight in singles, going back to July 2025.
She is not stopping. She has wild cards into both the singles and doubles draws at the Guangzhou Open in China, which begins October 24. It will be her first tournament in Asia since 2019.
Seven Slam singles titles, a design firm in its third decade, a clothing line she saved herself. And at 46, she is still taking wild cards, and still walking out to play.
GAMECHANGER™Reporting draws on the Associated Press, NBC Sports, the WTA, Just Women's Sports, Yahoo Sports, Yardbarker, Tennis Temple, Hospitality Design, Home Accents Today, California Apparel News, Gulf News, Ebony and Wikipedia's documented record of her career.
Sources (18)
Just Women's Sports: Venus Williams vs. Sofia Kenin, US Open 2026 · Olympics.com: Venus Williams exits US Open singles in 2026 first round to Sofia Kenin · ESPN: Venus Williams loses to Sofia Kenin in US Open 1st round · NBC Sports: Serena and Venus Williams return to doubles and lose close match in Cincinnati · Associated Press via FOX5 Vegas: Serena, Venus Williams lose match tiebreaker in their return to the US Open · WTA: Historic night, Venus Williams' first-round loss at the Australian Open · Associated Press via WSLS: At 45, Venus Williams sets record at Australian Open but falls in the 1st round · NBC Sports: 45-year-old Venus Williams becomes the oldest since Martina Navratilova to win a singles match · TheGrio: 45-year-old Venus Williams becomes the oldest woman since Navratilova to win a singles match · Yahoo Sports: Venus Williams adds U.S. Open · Tennis Temple: Venus Williams isn't done yet · Yardbarker: Venus Williams braces for Asia return after securing Guangzhou Open wildcards · Hospitality Design: Interview, Venus Williams · Home Accents Today: Court to castle · Design Manager: Venus Williams brings her signature style to commercial design with V Starr Interiors · California Apparel News: Venus Williams' EleVen made in LA · Gulf News: On and off the court designs · Ebony: Venus Williams talks relaunch of tennis apparel line EleVen