Venus Williams awarded singles and doubles wild cards to Guangzhou Open

BEIJING -- Venus Williams has been awarded singles and doubles wild cards for the 2026 Guangzhou Open, the tournament confirmed on its Rednote channel Monday. 

The seven-time Grand Slam champion will compete in Asia for the first time since Tianjin in 2019, and will play doubles with Indonesia's Janice Tjen. 

Guangzhou is currently scheduled to be Williams' next tournament after she most recently played in both the singles and doubles draws at the US Open, falling in the first round of each as a wild card.

In New York, she and her sister, 23-time major champion Serena Williams, played their second doubles match together since Serena came back to the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz after nearly four years away, going the distance with Maya Joint and Chan Hao-Ching. The two had competed in Cincinnati a couple weeks prior in their first match together since the 2022 US Open, falling to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns. 

Since coming back to the WTA Tour in July 2025 at Washington D.C. after a 16-month layoff, Williams, 46, has played select events as a wild card. At that tournament, she defeated Stearns, but has not garnered a singles win in the 15 matches following. 

The main draw at the 2026 Guangzhou Open starts October 26 and ends with the singles final on November 1. The tournament is held the final week of competition ahead of the season-ending WTA Finals at Indian Wells.