Legendary American Venus Williams will face Belgian qualifier Greet Minnen in the first round of the 2023 US Open. The match will be played on Tuesday, August 29, 2023.

Venus Williams will play in the US Open main draw for the umpteenth time on Tuesday night. The 43-year-old enters this year’s tournament as a wild card, and since her debut appearance back in 1997, she has only missed three editions of the New York Slam. Twice a champion and a runner-up, Venus will be chasing a first win here since 2019 when she faces a feisty Belgian in Greet Minnen. The evergreen American has played nine matches this season and has had to rely solely on her star power to earn wild cards at key WTA tournaments this season. Injuries have also curtailed her preparations coming to the US Open, after pulling out from last week’s WTA 250 event in Cleveland at the 11th hour due to a documented knee issue. Can Venus roll back the years in front of a packed house in Ashe?

26-year-old Greet Minnen will certainly have the legs to put this match beyond Venus Williams’ reach. The Belgian came through qualifying here and needed a couple of three setters to navigate her way into the US Open main draw for the fourth time. Minnen’s best result at Flushing Meadows came in 2021 when she entered the event as a lucky loser and earned scorching wins over Nadia Podoroska and Liudmila Samsonova before her campaign ended at the hands of Bianca Andreescu in the third round. Minnen does her best work on the lower levels of women’s tennis, mostly at ITF and WTA 125 events. This season she has won two titles, a W40 in Porto and a W60 in Sunderland, both indoors. She is currently ranked in the world’s Top 100.

Venus Williams and Greet Minnen have not played competitively on the WTA Tour. Two-time US Open champion Venus will get a partisan atmosphere under the lights, and this could easily work in her favor. But at 43, can Venus turn back time again? We’ve seen flashes of brilliance this season – her will to win carrying her to stunning wins over Camila Giorgi and more recently against Top-20 player Veronika Kudermetova in Cincinnati. She’ll totally be up for it no doubt, but if it goes down the stretch, the qualifier will hold the edge.