Venus Williams fell in straight units to Poland’s Magdalena Frech within the second spherical of the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington.
The 45-year-old turned the oldest lady to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova in 2004 after an opening-round victory over Peyton Stearns on Tuesday.
Williams took an early 2-1 lead in opposition to Frech, however the 27-year-old responded with a dominant run of seven straight video games en path to a 6-2 6-2 win.
“Oh, I had so much fun. Definitely not the result I wanted, but still a learning experience. The part about sport [and] life is that you never stop learning,” Williams mentioned.
“I got to play a lot of matches here and that definitely was a plus. The fans in DC are just epic. I couldn’t have been happier with my first week back.”
In Washington, William performed 4 matches, two singles and two doubles, over the course of 4 days.
“I feel like I ran out of gas today, unfortunately,” Williams mentioned after the loss to Frech. “I tried to find the energy, and I didn’t find it.”
Poland’s Frech has beforehand reached the fourth spherical of the Australian Open. “I can’t even imagine how she pushes herself,” she mentioned of Williams. “It’s really amazing.”
Williams has additionally accepted a wild card to play within the Cincinnati Open subsequent month.
“There are so many learnings from here. I know exactly what I need to work on, where I can improve,” she mentioned.
“The good news is I’m always in control of the point. The important part is to put the ball in.”
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