Venus Williams didn’t generate as much buzz Wednesday, but still advanced to the third round of the U.S. Open with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Timea Bacsinszky.
Following Monday’s first-round win — which involved a bee causing all sorts of havoc for Williams and her opponent, Kimiko Date-Krumm — Williams didn’t have to deal with insects or the heat, playing at night inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Williams, playing in her 16th U.S. Open, was a winner in 2000 and 2001, but, prior to Wednesday, hadn’t advanced to the third round since a semifinal appearance in 2010.
“Now I’m happy,” she said. “Finally I did something I couldn’t do in the last couple of years, so that’s good stuff.
“The last couple of years, I played really hard and I played really hard opponents. It’s not like I didn’t try but my opponents played really hard. Sometimes you don’t win them. That’s why you get up and you live to fight another day.”
This could be the 34-year old’s last Open appearance. In 2011, she was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, the effects of which include fatigue, dry mouth and muscle pain. And last year, a back injury forced her to miss some time.
Perhaps a sign of her career winding down is the fact she is currently taking business classes at Indiana University.
“Well, I have no life, but it’s made me a better boss and it’s made me more aware of how I can make better business decisions,” Williams said. “I’ve had to take classes, too, that I didn’t think I’d be interested in or that I was interested in that I didn’t like at all.”
In her decorated career, Williams has seven Grand Slam singles titles, is a perfect 13-0 in doubles finals playing with sister Serena and has won four Olympic gold medals.
“They’re always yours forever,” she said about the previous titles.
Her most recent Grand Slam title was at Wimbledon in 2009, and Williams won her first tournament title since 2012 this year. But she isn’t thinking about that as she prepares to face No. 13 Sara Errani in the third round.
“I hope we all can keep playing, us 30-somethings,” she said.
With the length of player timeouts becoming an increasingly talked-about issue among players, Williams was asked what rule she’d like to change.
“It would be against the rules for anyone with the name ‘Williams’ to lose,” she said.