Venus Williams has proved to the world that she still has it.

At the Mubadala Citi DC Open, Williams became the second-oldest woman to win a tour-level singles match in professional tennis after defeating Peyton Stearns by a score of 6-3, 6-4. Martina Navratilova's singles win at Wimbledon in 2004 at 47 makes her the oldest woman. It was Williams’ first match in more than a year.

Following the match on Tuesday (July 22), Williams spoke about how much work she put in to perform at a high level.

“Each week that I was training, I was like, 'Oh, my God, I don't know if I'm good enough yet.' And then there would be weeks where I would leap forward," Williams explained. "And there would be two weeks where I was like, 'Oh, God, it's not happening.' Even the week leading up, [I thought], 'Oh, my gosh, I need to improve so much more.' So it's all a head game."

The seven-time Grand Slam champion took time to have,

Her last win was in August 2023 in Cincinnati, and she was listed by the WTA Tour as "inactive” until last week.

"I'm just constantly praying for good health, so that way I could have an opportunity to play with good health," Williams said. "A lot of this for me is being able to come back and try to play at a level [and] to play healthy."

During the match, Williams showed glimpses of the elite skills that made her one of the legends of the sport.

Sterns was no slouch. The 23-year-old won singles and team NCAA titles at Texas and is currently ranked 35th.

"She played some ball tonight," Stearns said. "She was moving really well, which I wasn't expecting too much, honestly. Her serves were just on fire."

"I wanted to play a good match and win the match,” Willaims said as the crowd cheered.

Williams' next match is against No. 5 seed Magdalena Frech on Thursday, July 24.