For Francesca Jones, playing Venus Williams at Miami Open was surreal
Venus Williams watched the forehand sail into the net, the final shot of her loss to Francesca Jones of Britain at the Miami Open on Thursday afternoon. Nobody seemed to know what to do next.
Jones, who wasn’t even alive when Williams won her first two Grand Slam titles, raised her arms into the air to celebrate, then put them down after a few seconds. And on the way to the net, Jones saw Williams coming her way and did something not often seen after a match. She bowed. Such is the level of adoration that Jones — and surely plenty of others — have for Williams, who has been one of the biggest names in tennis for about three decades now. Williams broke into a big smile when Jones bowed, then offered a handshake, then a hug and even a quick word of encouragement. And Jones, oddly, was almost apologetic when her 7-5, 7-5 win was over.
“I’ve had a really rough year so far,” Jones said in the on-court interview following the match. “A lot of injuries and I’m still sick. I was coughing all the time. I was worried I was going to make a legend sick as well.”
She truly does think of Venus — and her sister Serena Williams — as legends.
Jones still has posters in her childhood bedroom of the sisters, wishing them good night before she goes off to sleep when she’s there. She still remembers being taken by her father to Centre Court at Wimbledon as a 5-year-old so she could watch her heroes play.
“If it weren’t for those two women, I’m not sure I would have made the step to do it. ... They’re the reason that I’m here today,” Jones said.
When the match ended, fans slowly rose to their feet, first applauding Jones, then breaking into a full-on ovation as Williams - who was playing the Miami tournament for the 23rd time, while Jones is in it for the first time - gathered her things and walked off the grandstand court with a wave.
And, as is probably the case on some level every time Williams gets eliminated from the singles draw of a tournament these days, the question will hover in the tennis world: “How many more times will we see her play?”
Time will tell. There will be at least one more match in Miami Gardens; Williams is playing doubles in this tournament with Leylah Fernandez. The duo made a run to the US Open quarterfinals last summer.
Carlos Alcaraz, the world’s top-ranked men’s player, said he hopes the Venus show keeps going for at least a little while longer.
“To be honest, for us, the tennis world, someone like such an iconic player, such an iconic athlete, a legend from all the sport still playing, I think it’s great,” Alcaraz said, speaking while the Williams-Jones match was getting underway. “Thanks to her, I think she brought a lot of people to watch tennis, which is great. And I have a huge admiration for her. She’s still playing, still delivering great tennis, performing well.”
Williams, who got a wild-card spot into this field, has been part of the tournament at two different sites and with it having at least a half-dozen different names. She’s reached the Miami final in three different decades, winning titles in 1998, 1999 and 2001 and being the runner-up in 2010.
It’s a home tournament for Williams, which is surely part of the appeal. Her hometown is Palm Beach Gardens, about a 90-minute drive north of Hard Rock Stadium. And she’s still among the partners within the ownership group of the Miami Dolphins, who call the facility home.
