Venus Williams’ return to the US Open stage for the first time since 2023 wasn’t exactly how she pictured it, falling to No. 11 seed Karolina Muchova in her first-round matchup. And given all that she has overcome to return to the game of tennis after a lengthy track record of health-related issues, she was understandably quite emotional about what returning to the US Open meant to her after her loss on Monday night.
Williams has long dealt with uterine fibroids, noncancerous tumors that grow in or on the uterus, which can lead to several painful symptoms, including lower back pain and Abdominal swelling. This caused Williams to take a 16-month absence from tennis after undergoing open myomectomy surgery to remove the uterine fibroids.
In July, Williams made her return to the sport at the Citi Open in Washington D.C., with Monday’s match against Muchova marking just her fourth singles match since returning. And while she didn’t win against Muchova, she was able to show that she can still compete at the highest level, taking a set off of Muchova before dropping the third and final set to her.
When speaking with reporters after her match, Williams had mixed emotions about the match. While she did express how she proved that she could still compete, she was quite clearly upset about coming up short, nearly being moved to tears by the end of her press conference.
“What did I prove to myself?” said Williams, reading back the question asked by a reporter. “I think for me, getting back on the court was giving myself a chance to play more healthy. And when you play unhealthy, it is in your mind. It’s not just how you feel. You get stuck in your mind too. So, it was nice to be free.”
Fighting back tears after saying it was “nice to be free” from the mental toll of her health problems, the remainder of the press conference was cut short by US Open moderator Gary Sussman, a decision that Sussman later described as “an executive decision”, according to the Bounces independent tennis Substack.
It seems evident that Sussman’s decision was in large part made due to how emotional Williams was in the moments leading up to the end of the presser, whether that be due to the loss or the relief of finally being pain free for the first time in quite some time.
Given the fact that Williams is undoubtedly one of the legends of the sport, few tennis fans would likely argue that she has certainly earned the right to step away from this press conference early given the context around her loss to Muchova.
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