All of a sudden, Venus Williams is BACK

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After not playing tennis for nearly a year, Venus Williams appears to be very keen on returning to the match court.

In addition to getting a wild card at the National Bank Open in Toronto – joining sister Venus – the elder Williams also has taken a wild card into the Citi Open in Washington D.C..

The Citi Open takes place the week of Aug. 1 – or the week before Toronto.

The tournament announced the news early Thursday morning.

Here’s her official quote:

“I am excited to be playing the Citi Open for the first time this summer. I love Washington, D.C. and returning to the nation’s capital to play in front of a community that has supported me so strongly feels like a homecoming. I am looking forward to being back on the courts and competing in DC soon.”

(These quotes never sound like the people actually said them, but we digress).

During her long and distinguished career, Williams has never played that tournament. But she has a longstanding relationship with tournament owner Mark Ein, who owns the Washington Kastles franchise of World Team Tennis.

Williams made appearances during nine seasons of WTT for Washington, and was the league MVP during the 2012 season.

Notably, World Team Tennis will not be held this season.

The sisters are back

Sister Serena, who returned to action after nearly a year in the singles at Wimbledon, has entered both Toronto and the WTA 1000 the following week in Cincinnati.

Venus, who said she hadn’t even contemplated playing Wimbledon until her sister decided to return, got a late wild card into the mixed doubles there with Jamie Murray of Great Britain.

She turned 42 last month; Serena will be 41 in September, just after the US Open.

It will be her first singles appearance since losing in the first round of a small WTA event in Chicago, the week before the 2021 US Open.

Her movement looked severely hampered in that match, which she lost to Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan 6-2, 6-3.

Venus no longer has a singles ranking; Serena sits at No. 399. But in both cases, it doesn’t matter. Not only can they benefit from what are called “top-20” wild cards in perpetuity, because of their illustrious resumés, any tournament would be happy to offer them a spot.

The number of players who are competing during this week, both in Washington and San Jose, is off the charts on the women’s side. That’s especially true considering there are back-to-back 1000s coming up immediately afterwards.

Naomi Osaka also has decided to play, in San Jose.

While it’s great news for the tournaments, it could be as much as five weeks of tennis in a six-week span that includes the US Open for the top players.

That sends up danger flares that some of the contenders could well be burned out by Flushing Meadows, given most of the tournaments will be played in high summer heat.

But that’s a problem for later on.