Venus Williams, who has not played since the US Open, is scheduled to start next season by playing the ASB classic, a WTA 250 event in Auckland.
The 42-year-old will receive a wild card, tournament organizers announced. She will use the event as a warm-up for the Australian Open, which has also awarded her a wild card.
“I’m looking forward to playing my first tournament of the season in Auckland,” she said in a statement from the tournament.
The seven-time Grand Slam winner had been off the tour since mid-2021 when, on the spur of the moment, she decided to enter the mixed doubles at Wimbledon. She then played four hard-court tournaments, going 0-4 at Washington, D.C., Toronto, Cincinnati and the US Open, where she also played doubles with retiring little sister Serena.
It was Williams’s team that requested the wild card, said tournament officials from Auckland.
“I’m excited to compete there,” she said.
Williams, a former No. 1, is currently No. 1007 in the rankings, has played the ASB Classic five times, reaching the final in her 2014 debut and winning the title the following year in three sets over Caroline Wozniacki.
Her last Auckland appearance came in 2019, and the event itself was canceled in both 2021 and 2022 due to concerns surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.