Venus Williams will extend her impressive streak of consecutive US Open appearances to 15 after receiving a wild card invite to play in this year’s tournament. Williams, who hasn’t missed US Open since the injury-riddled 2006 season, previously won two titles at Flushing Meadows.
Williams needed the invite as she is currently ranked No. 112 on the WTA list. Only players ranked in the top 104 on the list get included in the main draw of the tournament.
The US Open confirmed the news on social media while also revealing several other wild card recipients. The most prominent name on the list is 2017’s semi-finalist CoCo Vandeweghe, who ranked as high as No.14 in 2018 but fell down to No. 195 lately due to a combination of foot and hand injuries.
Williams and Vandeweghe will be joined by NCAA champion Emma Navarro and teenagers Hailey Baptiste, Ashlyn Krueger, Caty McNally, and Katie Volynets.
Besides winning the US Open in 2000 and 2001, Venus Williams made two further finals appearances at the tournament early in her career. More recently, Williams reached the semi-finals in 2017 before being eliminated by the eventual champion Sloane Stephens. The 41-year-old player, who has seven Grand Slam titles to her name, didn’t progress past the third round since then.
