Venus Williams Receives Australian Open Wild Card

By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, January 1, 2026
Photo credit: Coleve/Mark Peterson

Venus Williams is making a record-setting return to Oz.

Former world No. 1 Venus Williams has accepted a wild card to play this month’s Australian Open.

The 45-year-old superstar will play the Australian Open for the first time since 2021. Venus Williams, who launched her comeback to tournament tennis in Washington, DC last July, will play outside of the United States for the first time since 2023.

It will be a record-setting appearance Down Under: Venus will become the oldest woman to play the AO main draw, breaking the record set by Kimiko Date, who was 44 years old when she played the Melbourne major in 2015.

Overall, Venus owns a 54-21 record at the Australian Open, including finals appearances in 2003 and 2017. She lost both of those finals to younger sister Serena Williams.

The Australian Open main draw is set for January 18-February 1.

Coco Gauff, who famously faced off against Venus as a teenager at Wimbledon, said she’s excited to see the four-time Olympic gold-medal champion back in action.

“Yeah, she’s a legend of the sport, so it will be cool to see her back in action,” Gauff said. “It’s incredible for the longevity of her career that she has. Yeah, she’s a legend, one of the people I looked up to, so looking forward to seeing her back on court.

“She’s a legend, so you are never going to underestimate her. It will be funny if I
drew her the first round again, because that would be, like, three times. Yeah, I mean, we’ll save that if it
happens.”

The wild card comes after Venus wed partner, 37-year-old Italian actor and model Andrea Preti, last month in Palm Beach, Florida.

A radiant Venus looked gorgeous clad in a white wedding gown.