MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — At 45, it’s no surprise Venus Williams will be setting an age record at the Australian Open when she lines up Sunday in the first round.

The fact she’ll be the oldest player ever to compete in the Australian Open women’s singles draw wasn’t something she realized until after she’d received a wild-card entry to play at the year’s first major for the first time in five years.

“I hadn’t thought about it until it came out in the press,” she said Saturday in closing her pre-tournament news conference. “So yay. Yay for me! Let’s do this.”

She then left the auditorium and walked hand-in-hand with her husband, Andrea Preti, down a corridor back toward the player area — which isn’t much like she remembered it from her previous trip in 2021, the 21st time she’d competed at Melbourne Park.

Williams was married in December, a celebration she said was her priority between the first two major tournaments in a comeback to the tour that started last July.

She was 17 when she first played the Australian Open in 1998, reaching the quarterfinals in just her fourth Grand Slam event and coming off the back of a run to the final of the U.S. Open.

“It was a beautiful time, because there’s so much I didn’t know,” she said when asked to reflect on her first trip. “But there’s a great thing of not knowing because it lets you have a clean slate. There was so much I needed to learn, and then I learned it.

“That’s the thing about sport — you keep stepping up to the line, and while there is nothing to prove, it’s all about the attitude and the effort. No one can control that. Controlling that part is really the win.”

Williams lost her Grand Slam comeback match at the U.S. Open last August. Williams will face Olga Danilovic, a 24-year-old left-hander from Serbia, in the last match Sunday on John Cain Arena.

The No. 68-raked Danilovic is playing her 11th Grand Slam tournament and her third in Australia, where her run to the fourth round last year equaled her best at a major.

Williams, a seven-time major winner, is ranked 576 because of her limited time on the tour. She lost in the first round of warmup tournaments in New Zealand and Hobart to start the 2026 year. If she can register her first win of the year on Sunday, she could face third-seeded Coco Gauff in the second round.

“At this point, I need to be kind to myself, because I’m getting so many things right, but, you know, there has been a lack of playing matches,” she said. “So I’m playing well. I’m setting myself up each point to win points and controlling the points.

“That’s exactly how I’d want to play, and I’m playing the tennis I need to play.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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