INDIAN WELLS — Venus Williams smiled as applause erupted around her as she strutted across Court 1 of the vast stadium.
At 45 years old — she’ll turn 46 in June — Williams is obviously not the tennis player she once was, but that hardly matters. The same was true for qualifier Diane Parry, whom she lost 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1 in the first round on Thursday.
Wearing a stylish white sleeveless top and shorts by Lacoste, Venus produced a number of comebacks during the match and achieved a strong result against the player ranked 111th on the Mercedes-Benz WTA Tour. Incidentally, Parry reached the third round at both Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
This was Williams’ 110th main draw appearance at a Tier 1/WTA 1000 event, making her the sixth-most appearance alongside Francesca Schiavone since the tier format was introduced in 1990. She is the second oldest player to compete in a Tier 1/1000 event, after 47-year-old Martina Navratilova (Charleston, 2004).
Dating back to her first appearance at Indian Wells in 1996, Venus has been here for a full 30 years. The seven-time Grand Slam champion remains a celebrated icon and an ambassador for a sport with a long history of social conscience.
Older fans will remember his spectacular victories at Wimbledon and the US Open, among others. The young people in attendance may not understand the spark of popularity that Venus and her sister Serena brought to women’s tennis at the turn of the century.
Her greatest achievement, and Venus confirms this, was her key role in persuading the All England Club to award equal prize money to men and women in 2007. She lobbied behind the scenes and memorably wrote an essay in the London Times asking, “How can Wimbledon be on the wrong side of history?”
It was wonderfully appropriate when she received equal pay for the first time after winning in 2007 (her fourth of five titles).
There’s a lot going on in Williams’ life. She married Andrea Preti in 2025 and oversees a successful business in interior design and fashion. She also happens to love tennis, and has continued to do so since her last full-time season in 2019, playing a light schedule.
Some of you may wonder why. It could be the jolt of adrenaline that rushes through her when she scores a winner, or the roar of the crowd that leads to a roar when she’s in control of a point. I know it still means something when I see her slapping her thighs hard and swaying slightly from side to side as she thinks about going back to the breaking point.
After the 2-hour, 21-minute match, she is 0-5 on the year, but that’s not really the point.
Bruce Springsteen laments in the chorus of his beloved song “Glory Days,” “Glory days…they’ll pass by, glory days…in the blink of a young girl’s eye.”
We are grateful to Venus for reliving those golden moments, finding a way to recapture them, and sharing them with her eternal fans in mourning. At one point, Venus pumped her fist into the crowd as her thunderous forehands led to an open-court winner.
She was smiling – and so was everyone in the stadium.