Venus Williams addresses future after early US Open exit

In her earliest U.S. Open exit in six years, Venus Williams fell to fifth-seed Elina Svitolina on Wednesday.

It was Williams’ third straight defeat at the hands of Svitolina, falling 6-4, 6-4 at Louis Armstrong Stadium in the second round to snap her five-year streak of at least reaching the third round of the tournament.

Svitolina played a clean match, which lasted just under two hours, owning the shorter rallies and making just 22 unforced errors compared to Williams’ 47. Both sets were neck-and-neck, unlike their previous two meetings, where Svitolina rolled past Williams.

While Williams has struggled for most of the summer, she seemingly found her game at the Cincinnati Masters last week, where she reached the quarterfinals — defeating top-10 players Petra Kvitova and Kiki Bertens before losing to fellow American Madison Keys.

With mounting speculation over what her future involvement in tennis will look like, the seven-time major singles champion said she intends to keep competing.

“Today was a great match, it was well contested and it was great to have the crowd behind me,” Williams said. “It was just a really magical atmosphere. I did a lot of things right today, a lot of great things to build on.”

Williams fell into an 0-2 hole in the first set but battled back and won four of the next seven games, including back-to-back rallies after Svitolina took a 5-2 advantage. But Svitolina stayed composed in the 10th game as Williams attempted to close the gap, remaining focused even after she committed a double-fault to make it 30-30 before she eventually secured the first set.

The second set saw more of the Williams who almost flawlessly defeated Saisai Zheng 6-1, 6-0 in the first round on Monday. She jumped ahead 3-0, garnering more control in her serves and dominating the pace of play. She saved five match points in her final service game, which lasted 17 minutes.

But Svitolina quickly flipped the script, pummeling Williams through the next five games to take a 5-3 lead. Williams wouldn’t go away quietly though, playing her best tennis of the match and battling through five match points and eight deuces to stay alive.

“Venus, it’s unbelievable what she does,” Svitolina said in her on-court interview.

Svitolina is fresh off a breakthrough at Wimbledon, where she reached the semifinals at a Grand Slam for the first time in her career. With her win over Venus, the 24-year-old is on to her fifth straight third round of the U.S. Open.

“She always plays extremely well against me,” Williams said. “She can keep that form up and she’s got a lot of great things ahead of her. I think there’s probably a lot of matches that are winnable for her that she hasn’t been able to win, but against me she plays extremely well. She keeps that up — she’s clearly extremely talented — and just continue to go higher.”

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