She is the player Venus Williams beat to win her first WTA title but she did inflict Serena’s heaviest defeat ever

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Venus Williams will make her return to tennis at the Washington Open after over a year away from the sport.

Williams played her last match at the Miami Open in 2024, where she suffered a straight-sets defeat to Diana Shnaider in the first round.

The American legend, now 45, has been on the WTA tour for over 30 years, having made her debut in 1994 at an event in Oakland, California, aged just 14.

Three years after playing her first professional match, Williams clinched a maiden title, which would be the first of many in her illustrious career.

When Venus Williams won her first title on the WTA Tour

In 1998, Williams reached the final of the IGA Tennis Classic in Oklahoma City, where she came up against South African Joannette Kruger.

Kruger, who reached a career high of 21 in the world, had emerged victorious against Williams’ sister, Serena Williams, in the quarter-finals en route to the championship match.

She handed Serena the most lopsided defeat of her career, dropping just two games against the 23-time Grand Slam champion.

Only Annie Miller of the US was able to match such a scoreline, doing so in Quebec City in 1995.

Joannette Kruger’s two WTA singles titles:

• 1995 – Won in San Juan, defeating Kyoko Nagatsuka in the final
• 1997 – Won in Prague, defeating Marion Maruska in the final

In the final, however, Kruger couldn’t find an answer for Serena’s 17-year-old sister, who won in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, to hoist the first tour-level trophy of her career.

Just half an hour after her victory, Venus returned to the court to play the doubles final with Serena by her side, and the two won their first crown as a sister-act.

Venus Williams’ 1998 Grand Slam campaigns

After reaching her first Grand Slam final at the US Open in 1997, Williams made the quarter-finals at the Australian Open the following year.

She then recorded last-eight finishes at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, before her return to Flushing Meadows that season.

At the 1998 US Open, her campaign ended in the semi-finals, where she bowed out to second seed and eventual champion Lindsay Davenport.

It was an incredible year for the young star, who would finally go on to win a major at Wimbledon in 2000.