After Venus Williams' return packs stands at Citi DC Open, WTA player takes sly dig at Reilly Opelka's sparse audience over his doubles criticism

Australian doubles specialist Ellen Perez found it "funny" that Venus Williams' return to the WTA Tour in doubles drew a significantly bigger crowd than Reilly Opelka's first-round match at the ongoing 2025 Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington. In the past, Opelka, who interestingly happens to share a close bond with Williams, has often taken controversial swipes at doubles tennis by undermining the category.

On Monday, July 21, former WTA No. 1 and seven-time singles Slam champion Williams won her comeback match; a women's doubles first-round encounter with Hailey Baptiste as her partner in Washington. The contest unsurprisingly drew thousands of fans to the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center, with the crowd keen on watching the legendary Williams in action following her lengthy, 16-month long absence from the tour.

However, on the same day, Reilly Opelka's thrilling first-round singles victory against Murphy Cassone at the ATP 500 event of the same tournament was attended only by a handful of spectators. Prominent tennis journalist and insider Jose Morgado took to X (formerly Twitter) and shared a post, which reflected the contrasting turnouts for the two matches. Morgado captioned the post:

"Crowd for Venus Williams' *doubles* match in Washington. vs. crowd for ATP singles R1 in Washington."

Upon taking notice of the disparity in the respective turnouts at Venus Williams' doubles match and Reilly Opelka's singles clash, former WTA doubles No. 7 Ellen Perez reacted to Morgado's post. Perez's reaction consisted of a cheeky swipe at Opelka, who has stirred controversy on multiple instances by blatantly criticizing doubles tennis.

"Kinda funny it’s Opelka of all people 🤭," the Australian wrote.

Venus Williams and Reilly Opelka could feature in revamped mixed doubles category at US Open 2025

Reilly Opelka (left) and Venus Williams (right) with fashion designer Jonathan Anderson at a Milan event in 2024 (Source: Getty)

Despite Reilly Opelka's staunch and controversial opposition towards doubles tennis, the American ATP star has signed up for the revamped mixed doubles event at this year's US Open alongside Venus Williams. However, their entry into the event remains unconfirmed as they would need a wildcard to make it to the final draw.

On Monday, July 28, the US Open is set to announce the first eight mixed doubles teams, which are slated to be determined via the respective pairs' combined singles rankings. At a later date, the remaining eight teams will be confirmed based on the decision of the hardcourt Major to award wildcard entries.

For now, both Venus Williams and Reilly Opelka will be focusing on their upcoming matches at the 2025 Mubadala Citi DC Open. In women's singles, Williams is set to clash against Peyton Stearns in the first round. Meanwhile, Opelka is slated to lock horns with former ATP No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in the second round.

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Edited by Sudipto Pati