Venus Williams spotted at UW playing tennis ahead of large-scale Amazon conference
Sep 14, 2022, 12:27 PM
Serena Williams and Venus Williams of the United States on Arthur Ashe Stadium during their Women's Doubles match against Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic during the US Open Tennis Championship 2022 at the USTA National Tennis Centre on September 1st 2022 in Flushing, Queens, New York City. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
(Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
Venus Williams hit the University of Washington tennis courts Tuesday and played in an impromptu tennis match for a small crowd of roughly 100 people.
Venus Williams is holding court at the UW today … pic.twitter.com/PXeZVvKnO8
— Dan Raley (@DanRaley1) September 13, 2022
Williams is currently in Seattle to speak at the Amazon Accelerate Seller Conference before she found herself volleying with Husky assistant coach Mitch Stewart. Stewart was a three-time tennis state champ at Federal Way High School and a four-time All-Pac-12 performer.
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Amazon’s Accelerate Seller Conference promises to be the platform for the company’s biggest announcements of the year and will be at the Seattle Convention Center on Sept. 14 and 15. Venus has been touted as one of the conference’s biggest guest speakers as she’s penned to discuss her successes off the tennis court as an entrepreneur and as a small business advocate.
Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion who’s held the title as the No. 1 ranked tennis player in both singles and doubles, recently competed in the U.S. Open alongside her sister, Serena. They lost in the first round of women’s doubles to Linda Nosková and Lucie Hradecká from the Czech Republic.
The former four-time Olympic Gold Medal champion also lost in women’s singles in the first round, losing in straight sets to Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium. Serena eliminated the No. 2 ranked player in the world before losing to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic in three sets in the second round.
Serena retired from tennis after that loss, and thanked her sister in her retirement speech.
“My sister Venus once said that when someone out there says you can’t do something, it is because they can’t do it. But I did do it. And so can you,” Serena said in a statement on her retirement.
