# Venus Williams and Nick Kyrgios Steer Washington's Doubles Spotlight

**By Amelie Fontaine**  \nPublished July 27, 2026  \nUpdated July 27, 2026

> The 2025 DC Open leans on Venus Williams's comeback at age 45 and Nick Kyrgios's doubles-only schedule to anchor the doubles storylines in Washington.

The Washington hard-court stop has rarely been a stage for nostalgia, but the 2025 edition of the Mubadala Citi DC Open tilted decisively toward veterans the moment the entry lists were confirmed. Between July 21 and 27, the FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park is hosting a doubles draw that leans on two of the most recognizable names in tennis: Venus Williams, returning to competition at 45 after more than a year on the sidelines, and Nick Kyrgios, the two-time Washington singles champion, who opted out of singles entirely to focus on doubles alongside Frenchman Gaël Monfils.

Williams's path back to the match court has been a slow assembly of small commitments. She has not played an official match since the Miami Open in March 2024, where she was eliminated in the first round by Diana Shnaider. A wild card from tournament organizers brought her into the main draw of both the singles and doubles, and her presence carries a particular resonance in Washington. She remembers her first trip to the city around age 13, and she returned to play here as recently as 2022. There's something truly special about D.C.: the energy, the fans, the history, Williams said in a statement released by organizers. This city has always shown me so much love, and I can't wait to compete there again.

That return did not come without a small wobble earlier in the year. In February 2025, the Indian Wells tournament announced that Williams would mark her comeback there, then reversed course, telling reporters the initial announcement had turned out to be inaccurate. Washington, by contrast, is a confirmation rather than a tease. Mark Ein, chairman of the Mubadala Citi DC Open, framed the addition in personal terms: She has inspired people around the world with her accomplishments on the court and her visionary impact off the court. I know how much it means to our D.C. fans and community to be able to watch her compete in person this summer.

## The Foot-Fault and the Fast Start

The competitive return arrived on the doubles court, where Williams had not played an official match in nearly three years. Paired with Hailey Baptiste, she faced 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard and Clervie Ngounoue in the first round. The opening point of the match offered a small, telling moment: Williams unloaded on her first serve and watched the line judge call a foot fault, wiping the point away. She smiled, the crowd laughed, and a courtside group that included NBA star Kevin Durant leaned in. Williams and Baptiste then settled into their rhythms, taking the match 6-3, 6-1 in efficient, untidy fashion, with flashes of Williams's trademark power on the forehand and a few early-timing volleys that betrayed the rust of a long layoff.

The doubles win is only the first assignment. On Tuesday, Williams was scheduled to face fellow American Peyton Stearns in the first round of singles, a more demanding test of where her body and timing actually stand. The draw offers a manageable runway: Stearns is a young, rising opponent rather than a top-ten fixture, and a tight scoreline would tell Williams more about her game than a breezy win. A rough one would tell her just as much.

## The Sjögren's Layer

None of this is simple stamina work. Williams disclosed in 2011 that she had been diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome, an autoimmune condition that causes joint pain and a particular kind of energy-sapping fatigue. The disease has shaped her schedule for more than a decade, helping explain why her recent tournament appearances have been occasional rather than routine. Coming back to a city she first visited as a teenager, with a doubles match on Monday and a singles match the next day, is the kind of calibrated workload the diagnosis demands: enough to feel the ball, not so much that the body pushes back.

## Kyrgios's Doubles-Only Pivot

If Williams's return is about re-entry, Kyrgios's Washington plan is about restraint. The Australian, who won the Washington singles title in 2019 and 2022, was listed in the entry list for both draws, then pulled out of singles in mid-July because he did not feel physically ready. The singles field lost one of its most marketable names; the doubles draw gained a high-voltage pairing. Kyrgios will play with Gaël Monfils, the French showman whose own late-career scheduling has tilted toward doubles and curated appearances, and the combination is a deliberate tradeoff: fewer matches, more entertainment per match, and a controlled test of where his body actually is after a series of injury-marred seasons. The last time Kyrgios played a tournament was the Miami Open in April 2025, and even that appearance came with the caveat that he has not looked fully fit for a sustained run in some time.

The tournament benefits either way. The men's singles draw is already deep: five of the ATP's current top 10 are entered, including Taylor Fritz, Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Ben Shelton, and Andrey Rublev, with home hopes Frances Tiafoe, Alex de Minaur, and Daniil Medvedev also in the field. The doubles bracket, however, has the two names casual fans actually look up on the schedule, and the organizers are leaning into that.

## The Pre-US Open Calculus

Washington is the soft launch of the North American hard-court run that ends at the US Open in late August, and the choices both veterans are making say something about how the modern tour accommodates players who can no longer, or no longer want to, play a full schedule. Williams is using a wild card in a city she loves, in a tournament where the singles field is short on household names, to test two things at once: how her body responds to back-to-back competition, and whether the level is anywhere near good enough to threaten anyone. Kyrgios, by skipping singles, is protecting a body that has made him rich and famous and unreliable in roughly equal measure, and trading volume for a single marquee week.

Neither plan is a long-term roadmap, and neither one needs to be. The draw offers a low-stakes laboratory for both, and the tournament offers a built-in audience for whatever each of them can produce. For now, that is the bargain Washington has made, and it is the bargain two of the tour's most charismatic veterans have accepted.

## Sources

- [Simon Cambers](https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/45717585/venus-williams-45-accepts-wild-card-invitation-dc-open) — original
- [ge.globo.com](https://ge.globo.com/tenis/noticia/2025/07/21/aos-45-anos-venus-williams-disputa-wta-500-de-washington-apos-mais-de-um-ano-sem-jogar.ghtml) — original
- [olympics.com](https://www.olympics.com/pt/noticias/atp-wta-washington-2025-chaves-programacao-onde-assistir) — original
- [puntodebreak.com](https://www.puntodebreak.com/en/2026/07/17/nick-kyrgios-and-venus-williams-will-be-the-main-attraction-in-the-doubles-in-washington) — original
- [Jules Hypolite](https://pt.tennistemple.com/actu/aos-46-anos-venus-williams-recebe-novo-convite/KBcx) — original
- [Nuno Chaves](https://bolamarela.pt/kyrgios-desiste-dos-singulares-mas-vai-jogar-pares-ao-lado-de-monfils-em-washington/) — original
- [apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/venus-williams-doubles-dc-open-washington-addb90d0695f5caf672261b634ca19ed) — original