Venus Williams’ run in doubles with partner Hailey Baptiste at the DC Open ended in the second round Wednesday with a 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 loss in a champion’s tiebreaker to second-seeded Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai.
The 45-year-old Williams is competing at her first tournament in more than a year — and first in doubles since 2022 — and she and Baptiste won their first-round match on Monday.
Williams will play her second-round singles match Thursday against Magdalena Frech.
On Tuesday, Williams became the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match, beating Peyton Stearns — who is 23 — in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
On the heels of that victory — her first in nearly two years — Williams was awarded a wild-card entry on Wednesday for next month’s Cincinnati Open.
In other DC Open women’s singles play Wednesday, second-seeded Emma Navarro was eliminated by Maria Sakkari 7-5, 7-6 (1) in the night session.
Sakkari was the 2023 runner-up to Coco Gauff in Washington.
Also, unseeded Anna Kalinskaya eliminated No. 8 seed Magda Linette 6-4, 6-0.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
