45歳、ヴィーナス・ウィリアムズが私たちに教えてくれたこと。全米オープンテニス2025、感動の舞台裏
45歳を迎えたテニス界のレジェンド、ヴィーナス・ウィリアムズ選手。全米オープンテニス2025での彼女の戦いは、ただの1試合の結果を超えた、私たちに多くの感動を与えてくれました。
1. 敗戦を超えた、彼女の存在感
8月25日（日本時間）、ヴィーナス・ウィリアムズ選手はカロリーナ・ムチョバ選手との試合に臨みました。結果は6-3, 2-6, 6-1でムチョバ選手の勝利。2年ぶりのグランドスラム出場、そして2025年最後の試合となりました。
しかし、この日のアーサー・アッシュ・スタジアムは、まるで彼女のこれまでのキャリア全てを祝福するかのような、温かい雰囲気に包まれていました。彼女の一挙手一投足に、観客から大きな歓声と拍手が送られました。
2. 涙の告白。「コートに戻って来れたこと」
試合後の記者会見で、彼女は笑顔でジョークを交えながら話していました。しかし、ある記者の質問が、彼女の過去の苦悩を呼び起こしました。
「自分自身に何を証明したのか？」
そう問いかけられた彼女は、しばしの沈黙の後、涙ながらに語りました。「コートに戻って来れたことが、私にとって全てだった。健康な状態でプレーできる喜びを、もう一度味わいたかった。」
3. 16ヶ月の苦悩と、不屈の精神
2024年、子宮筋腫の手術を受けた彼女は、16ヶ月もの間、テニスコートから離れていました。復帰に向けて、彼女はチームと共に、文字通り「休みなし」でトレーニングに励んだと言います。
「ディナーにも行かなかった。友達にも会わなかった。ただ、ひたすら練習した。」
その努力は、結果にこそ結びつきませんでしたが、彼女の不屈の精神を、私たちに強く印象付けました。
4. 観客の声援が、彼女の背中を押した
試合中、ヴィーナス選手には、「頑張れ、ヴィーナス！」という声援が、惜しみなく送られました。
「こんなにも多くの人が、私の味方をしてくれていると感じたことはなかった。アメリカだけでなく、世界中の人々が応援してくれていると感じ、本当に嬉しかった。」
5. ヴィーナス・ウィリアムズという生き方
1997年の全米オープンでグランドスラムデビューを飾って以来、彼女は数々の輝かしい成績を残してきました。しかし、彼女の偉大さは、単なるアスリートという枠には収まりません。
妹のセリーナ・ウィリアムズ選手と共に、テニス界のアイコンとして、多くの人々に勇気と希望を与えてきました。
6. 彼女の言葉が、私たちに勇気をくれる
今後の活動について、彼女は明言を避けました。しかし、ある時、なぜ今もプレーを続けるのかと問われた彼女は、こう答えました。「Why not?（なぜ、やらないの？）」
このシンプルな言葉に、彼女の生き方が凝縮されているように感じます。
45歳という年齢を超えて、今もなお挑戦し続けるヴィーナス・ウィリアムズ選手。彼女の姿は、私たちに「年齢なんて関係ない。やりたいことをやればいい」というメッセージを送ってくれているのではないでしょうか。
NEW YORK — That Venus Williams lost her first Grand Slam match in two years — and what she says will be her last match of 2025 — didn’t really matter Monday night.
Certainly not to the thousands of supportive spectators in the Arthur Ashe Stadium seats who roared for her best shots and, in a way, for everything her career means to them, before sending her off the court with a standing ovation after a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 defeat against 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova at the US Open.
The result also sure seemed beside the point to Williams herself, at 45 the oldest singles player at Flushing Meadows since 1981. She smiled and laughed and joked through her postmatch news conference — until, that is, a reporter asked something that made her think back to all of the injury and illness issues she dealt with for years.
“Oh, what did I prove to myself?” Williams began, repeating part of the question. “I think for me, getting back on the court was about giving myself a chance to play more healthy. When you play unhealthy, it’s in your mind. It’s not just how you feel. You get stuck in your mind too. So it was nice to be freer.”
As she spoke those last few words, Williams bowed her head and closed her eyes, which welled with tears. After several seconds of silence, the tournament moderator ended the Q-and-A session and Williams rose from her seat at the front of the room.
This was just the fourth singles match of a comeback that began in July after 16 months off the tennis tour, time marked by pain from uterine fibroids she had surgery for last year.
“My team and I, we worked as hard and as fast as we could. We literally took no days off. I haven’t gone to dinner. I haven’t seen friends. I haven’t done anything except train for three months as hard as I could,” Williams said. “From each match that I didn’t win, then I tried to go back and learn from that and then get better.”
She hasn’t won a match at the US Open in singles since 2019, when she got to the second round. Since then, Williams exited in the first round in 2020, 2022 and 2023, and missed the tournament in 2021 and 2024.
Being back in the arena meant so much to her — and to those watching.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a crowd that much on my side,” said Williams, who appreciated the backing and yells of “Let’s go, Venus!” that came from the stands even as she dropped 11 of the night’s first 13 points. “I knew going into this match that people in this stadium, people in the United States, people around the world, were really rooting for me, and that felt great.”
This event holds a special place in her career. Her first Grand Slam final came at the 1997 US Open, when she was 17. She won two of her seven major championships there, in 2000 and 2001.
And it was at the US Open more than a decade ago that Williams withdrew before she was supposed to play in the second round, revealing she had been diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, an energy-sapping autoimmune disease that can cause joint pain.
Some thought she might leave tennis because of it, but she remained a leading figure — on and off the court.
“She’s such a legend of our sport,” 2023 French Open runner-up Muchova said, calling it an honor “to share a court with her.”
Muchova, a 29-year-old from Czechia, made it to the semifinals in New York in both 2023 — when she lost to eventual champion Coco Gauff in a match interrupted by a climate protest — and 2024.
So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that Williams started slowly. But with her fiance, Andrea Preti, leaping out of his seat after many points, Williams got back into the match, smacking vintage serves at up to 114 mph and finishing with just one fewer winner than Muchova.
In the third set, though, as the contest reached two hours, Muchova was simply too good.
Since making her professional debut in 1994, Williams has accomplished pretty much everything one can in tennis. There are the 14 Grand Slam trophies in women’s doubles alongside her younger sister, Serena, plus two in mixed doubles. The record five Olympic tennis medals. The time at No. 1 in the WTA rankings.
Both siblings transcended their sport and became much more than successful athletes. Serena, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, played her last match at the 2022 US Open.
“She’s Venus Williams. She’s so iconic in so many different ways,” said Frances Tiafoe, an American player who won his first-round match in Ashe earlier Monday. “She’s won so much. And to see how much she loves game still at her age is amazing. It’s amazing to still see her out here.”
It’s unclear what the future holds. Williams said she doesn’t want to travel to tournaments outside the country; after the US Open, the tour heads to Asia.
When she was asked at the Washington tournament why she was still competing, she offered a simple reply: “Why not?”
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