The oldest women to play on the WTA Tour since 2000: ft Venus Williams
Venus Williams is back.
Many thought that the tennis icon, a former world No 1 and seven-time Grand Slam champion, had silently left the sport, having not played since Indian Wells and Miami in March 2024.
However, Williams has ended her 16-month absence from the WTA Tour by accepting a wildcard into singles and doubles action at the Citi DC Open in Washington this week.
Having turned 45 back in June, the American will be among the oldest players to ever compete in a tour-level singles match.
Here, we look at Williams and a handful of other stars who have competed well into their forties this century.
Venus Williams – 45
It has been over 30 years since a 14-year-old Williams made her professional tour debut in Stanford back in 1994, kickstarting a legendary career.
The American has won 49 WTA singles titles in her career, including five Wimbledon and two US Open titles, while she has also finished as a runner-up at nine other Grand Slam tournaments.
After a resurgence in the mid-2010s, following battles with health issues, Williams was regularly playing on tour until August 2021 – making just 13 tournament appearances since then, until her DC campaign.
The last time Williams won a tour-level match was at the 2023 Cincinnati Open, where the then-43-year-old defeated Veronika Kudermetova in round one.
However, she has suffered a recurrence of injury issues since then and has lost her last four matches, including losses to Nao Hibino in Indian Wells and Diana Shnaider in Miami last March.
Aged 45, she will return to singles action at the WTA 500 event against world No 35 Peyton Stearns, a player born after Williams had won her first four major titles.
Kimiko Date – 46
Aged just 25, and a former world No 4 with three Grand Slam semi-finals to her name, Kimiko Date stunned the tennis world when she announced her sudden retirement in 1996.
However, the Japanese would then return to the sport in her late thirties in 2008, and would compete for the best part of a decade.
Date won the 2009 Korea Open just one day before her 39th birthday in September 2009 and made 23 Grand Slam main-draw appearances, before a knee injury disrupted the latter stages of her career.
After not playing any tour-level matches in 2016, the Japanese officially called time on her career at the Japan Women’s Open in September 2017, just days shy of her 47th birthday.
She was beaten 6-0, 6-0 in her final match by Aleksandra Krunic, with her last official match win having come versus Ajla Tomljanovic at the Korea Open in September 2015.
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Martina Navratilova – 48
After dominating in the 1980s, Navratilova initially called time on her tennis career in 1994, though she made a shock return to the sport in the early 2000s.
Navratilova’s priority was largely doubles, though she contested a string of singles matches, starting by reaching the second round of the Eastbourne Open in June 2002.
However, the Czech-born American played a grateful handful of matches across the 2004 season, culminating in a stunning 6-0, 6-1 over Catalina Castano in the opening round of Wimbledon.
Aged 47, Navratilova was 23 years older than her opponent, and also gave a good account of herself in a three-set loss to Gisela Dulkova in round two.
Victory over Castano proved to be her final singles match win, though her final singles match came as a 48-year-old in Rosmalen the following summer, losing in three sets to Claudine Schaul.
Though her singles career ended in 2005, Navratilova would go on to win the mixed doubles title at the US Open in 2006, less than two months before turning 50.
Honourable mentions
Though players competing into their forties is now rare, a few stars have contested – like Navratilova – doubles matches at that age.
One such example is Kveta Peschke, who, after ending her singles career in 2007, competed in doubles until her retirement in April 2022 at the age of 46.
There are also a handful of players who have competed well past their 40th birthday on the lower levels of the tour.
Perhaps the most famous example is Gail Falkenberg, who attracted international attention after playing an ITF event at the age of 69 in 2016.
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