Venus Williams confirms her first tournament for 2026 season

Venus Williams's career is guaranteed to continue for at least another season after her first WTA event in 2026 was revealed.

It seemed like Williams's remarkable journey as a professional tennis player might be over when she did not play for over a year and engaged in other activities, including writing a book about health and wellness.

Williams delighted fans by returning at the 2025 Citi Open and winning her first match back against Peyton Stearns with a powerful display before losing to Magdalena Frech.

After being defeated by Jessica Bouzas Maneiro at the 2025 Cincinnati Open, Williams pushed 2023 and 2024 semifinalist Karolina Muchova to three sets at the 2025 US Open. The tennis legend has not played a match since.

On Tuesday, the ASB Classic in Auckland's social media pages confirmed that Williams will participate in the 2026 edition. Its X post announcing it referred to her as an 'all-time great.'

Williams's planned involvement in Auckland could indicate she wants to play at the 2026 Australian Open. Her status as a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion means the tournament would probably award her a wild card.

Despite only winning one match in her three tournaments during this year's North American swing, Williams's level was high enough to justify her belief that she can still compete on the professional circuit.

That achievement at 45 is already incredible. Williams has previously talked about how much she practices and works hard. If that continues in the off-season, the former WTA world No. 1 could be even better in 2026.

Williams's place guarantees an exciting entry list at next year's ASB Classic. Coco Gauff won the 2023 and 2024 iterations but chose to play at the 2025 United Cup this year, which was a blow for organizers.

For a long time, Williams was at No. 2 on the WTA all-time prize money list. Her sister Serena is way ahead of everyone else at No. 1, and it will take a lot of work from the active players to overtake her.

A few weeks ago, Swiatek took Venus's spot at No. 2 despite still being just 24. Achieving that at this early stage of her career is remarkable from the Pole, and she deserves considerable credit.

However, it is also fair to point out that Swiatek has been helped by active players benefiting from higher prize money amounts than Williams had earlier in her career and that older players had before they retired.

Swiatek, Coco Gauff, and Aryna Sabalenka are all contenders to overtake Serena's prize money total. 21-year-old Gauff has the benefit of being younger than the 24-year-old Swiatek and the 27-year-old Sabalenka, but she is currently below those two players.

Whoever wins the ongoing 2025 WTA Finals will receive a massive addition to their career prize money earnings. If any player wins the title without losing any matches, they would earn $5.235 million, the highest amount in women's tennis history.