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For Venus Williams, it's all love. In the post-match interview following her first singles victory in more than a year, the tennis sensation revealed that she was engaged to Italian model and actor Andrea Preti.
Venus, whom she referred to as a newly engaged woman, smiled and said, "Yes, my fiancé is here," in response to interviewer Rennae Stubbs' question about whether Andrea was a factor in her comeback. And he gave me a lot of motivation to keep playing.
“I just wanted to coast and kind of chill a lot of the time,” she added.
After all, as the 45-year-old pointed out, tennis isn't exactly simple.
She laughed and said, "Are you aware of the difficulty of playing tennis?" It's like it's nine to five, except you're running the entire time. You guys have no idea how much work goes into this. You feel like you're dying when you lift weights, but you do it again the following day.
"So he encouraged me to get through this, and it's wonderful to be here," she continued, referring to her fiancé. I've never played for him.
Andrea witnessed a successful first match on July 22 at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, D.C., where Venus defeated American player Peyton Stearns.
The announcement of Venus' engagement follows months of conjecture that she and the 37-year-old had said yes to forever after she was seen wearing a diamond ring on that finger outside a training session in Rome in February. Fuel was only added to the fires when the tennis player once again stepped out with a noticeable diamond ring on her left hand during Milan Fashion Week later that month.
Venus has been open about her willingness to let her life unfold in its own time over the years. She was first connected to Andrea in July 2024 after the two went on a boat ride together in Nerano, Italy.
In 2021, she told Cosmopolitan, "I have a lot of friends who don't believe me when I say that I like my life and I don't want to change it for any reason." They don't believe me, and I'm not in a desperate situation. For example, "You're going to miss your window."
“I’m like, ‘Please, relax,’” she added. I don't feel this way, but you might. I swear to you that I don't.
Venus mentioned that she was prepared to face whatever life threw at her a year later.
“When life changes, you’ve got to know when to change,” she told Glamour UK. “You can’t hold on to either a relationship or the singleness.”
