Venus Williams is set to compete at a WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati after being awarded a main draw wildcard. At the start of this week, the Cincinnati organizers announced seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams as a main draw wildcard recipient. Now, 43-year-old Williams is set to make her 10th appearance at the Cincinnati event. In Cincinnati, Williams debuted in 2009 when she was beaten by Flavia Pennetta in the round-of-16. In her second Cincinnati appearance – which came in 2012 – Williams made the semifinal before she was beaten by Na Li. Since then, Williams has just once managed to make the Cincinnati quarterfinal – that happened in 2019. Last year, Williams suffered a first-round defeat in Cincinnati to Karolina Pliskova. This year’s Cincinnati tournament edition is taking place between August 14-20.
Williams has seemingly recovered from the injury
Williams last played at Wimbledon, where she slipped and suffered a very unfortunate leg injury during her first-round loss to Elina Svitolina. Although Williams was clearly injured after slipping in the third game of the match, she refused to retire. After suffering a 4-6 3-6 loss to Svitolina, Williams said she “got killed by the grass.”
āGrass is inherently going to be slippery. Youāre going to fall at some point. It was just bad luck for me. I started the match perfectly. I was literally killing it, then I got killed by the grass. Itās not fun right now. I felt like I was in great form coming into this tournament, and great form in the match. Itās all very shocking at the moment. This is sports. Iām hitting the ball well. Hopefully I can just figure out whatās happening with me and move forward. I think what makes this one hard to process is Iāve had so many injuries. Iāve been missing from tour for quite a while. This is not what I want for myself,” Williams said at Wimbledon.
Next week, Williams will be returning to action in Montreal, where she also received a wildcard.