Venus Williams put plenty of faith in the young American players back in 2016.
The 44-year-old has been a professional player for over 30 years and has seen plenty of players come and go during that time.
Venus Williams has also seen how the game has changed including how the surfaces the game is played on.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion has written her name into the history books as one of the greatest to step foot on a court, and she had every faith her compatriots could do the same.
Williams is one of the greatest players to compete at the Wimbledon Championships.
She won the title on five occasions. The only women that have more are her sister Serena Williams, Steffi Graf and record nine-time winner Martina Navratilova.
During the 2016 Championships, Williams commented on how the grass has changed over the years, and believed it could help the younger American players thrive at the tournament.
“Absolutely. The surface at Wimbledon has changed a lot since I first started,” the former World number one said to reporters.
“It’s a lot more forgiving, so it gives a lot of players more opportunity to be able to adjust quicker to the grass. Hopefully we’ll be able to see that with the young Americans.”
In the nine years since Williams’ comments, no American women have been able to win the Wimbledon title.
In fact the US women who have come closest to winning the title since then are Venus herself and elder sister Serena.
Venus made her last Wimbledon final in 2017, where she lost to Garbine Muguruza 7-5, 6-0, while Serena’s last final at SW19 came against Simona Halep in 2019 when the Romanian won 6-2, 6-2.
She also lost the 2018 final to Germany’s Angelique Kerber. Since Williams’ last two trips to the final, no American woman has reached the championship match at the All-England Club.
American number one Coco Gauff has yet to go beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon. On the other hand, Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys both reached the quarter-finals in 2023, and both players and their compatriots will be aiming to change that in 2025.
Jessica Pegula delivers a serve to Arantxa Rux in the first set of their opening round match at the ATX Open on Tuesday, February 25, 2025 at Westwood Country C
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