Venus Williams bowed out of the DC Open doubles after she and her partner Hailey Baptiste suffered a loss in the quarterfinal against Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai, 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 on Thursday in Washington. Venus, however, remains in the fray in the women's singles segment. There is also good news: she has been given a wild card entry to next month's Cincinnati Open en route to her return to the US Open, the season-ending Grand Slam. Venus is on the entry list to compete in the US Open mixed doubles tournament with partner Reilly Opelka.

Venus became the oldest player in 21 years to win a tour-level singles match since Martina Navratilova in 2004, as she beat Peyton Stearns, 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday. It was also her first win in singles since 2023. In the doubles match, however, she suffered a straight-set defeat to the second-seeded Townsend and Zhang.

Venus and Baptiste had made a strong start to the DC Open, beating wild cards Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue. After her exit from doubles, the American star will next take the court on Friday for a second-round singles match against No. 5 seed Magdalena Fręch.

After winning her first-round singles match, Venus said, "You know, it's the first step, and the first match is always extremely difficult."

"It's hard to describe how difficult it is to play a first match after so much time off. So going into the match, I know I have the ability to win, but it's all about actually winning. So this is the best result, to play a good match and win. I'm here with my friends, family, people I love, and the fans, too, who I love and they love me, so this has been just a beautiful night."

The Cincinnati Open, a hard-court warm-up tournament for the US Open, begins on August 5. Caty McNally, the only player to take a set off Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek, was also given a wild card for Cincinnati on Wednesday.