She learned the game on public courts in Compton, California, sometimes ducking to let stray gunfire pass, and grew up to hit the ball harder and reach farther than the women's tour had seen. Venus Williams stretched the court until opponents ran out of angles, and the game reshaped itself around that power. She won 7 major singles titles, five Wimbledons and two US Opens, and in February 2002 rose to world No. 1, the first Black woman to top the rankings in the Open era.
The rivalry that defined her was familial. Across a career of finals she met her sister Serena Williams more than any other player, two Compton kids trading Grand Slam titles on the sport's biggest stages, and she also traded blows for years with Lindsay Davenport. What set her apart in the end was refusal. She kept competing through injury and illness into her forties, still entering tournaments in 2026, long after her peers had gone. She has 49 career titles, but the number that matters is how long she stayed.
Five hundred and eighty. That is the ranking of Thea Frodin, the wildcard who opens the US Open against second seed Elena Rybakina. The women's singles draw was made today, ahead of the tournament's start on 30 August, with top seed Aryna Sabalenka, the world No. 1 and defending champion, opening against Camila Osorio.
Draw taleTwenty-two years. That is how long it has been since Lleyton Hewitt won the title in Washington, and this week his son came through qualifying into the main draw of the same tournament. Cruz Hewitt is 17, ranked outside the top 600, and plays Marcos Giron in the first round. It is his first ATP main draw, and it is a smaller novelty than it sounds. The tour is thick with players whose surname arrived before they did.
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