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The US Open is the fourth and final major of the tennis season, and it is also the only tennis grand slam played in the United States. The Australian Open is held in January in Australia, the French Open in late May to early June in France, Wimbledon in July in England, and then the US Open in September in New York.
The US Open represents the final chance for a competitor to clinch a grand slam victory before the three-month break before the Australian Open the following calendar year. There are several ways to compete in the US Open, with the most common being a top-ranked player or by winning a qualifying tournament.
The U.S. Tennis Association is also able to issue wild cards, typically for players returning from injury or other exceptions. Given her recent return to tennis and win at the Mubadala City DC Open, the USTA determined that women’s tennis icon Venus Williams would be granted a wild card spot at the 2025 U.S. Open. Williams, 45, competed in her 25th US Open and first since 2023.
Here is more on the oldest women to ever compete at the US Open and where Williams ranks.
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Who is the oldest woman to compete in singles at US Open?
The oldest woman to compete in the singles draw at the US Open is Raymonde Veber Jones. She participated in the 1968 US Open at the age of 50. Veber Jones was able to overcome Carol Mae Hunter in the first round, but then Wendy Overton got the better of her in the second round, knocking her out of the tournament after three sets.
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Oldest women to compete in singles at the US Open
| Player | Age | Year | Result |
| Raymonde Veber Jones | 50 | 1968 | Lost in second round |
| Gussie Moran | 47 | 1971 | Lost in first round |
| Renee Richards | 47 | 1981 | Lost in first round |
| Venus Williams | 45 | 2025 | TBD |
Raymonde Veber Jones
Raymonde Veber Jones was a French tennis player born in 1917 in Paris and died in 2016 when she was 98 years old. Veber Jones never won an official tennis major. She did win a singles title in 1944 at the Tournoi de France, though, which was a tournament set up during World War II to replace the French Championships, which were essentially the French Open at the time.
Veber Jones defeated Carol Mae Hunter in the first round of the 1968 US Open in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. She then lost to Wendy Overton, 4-6, 15-13 and 2-6 in the second round.
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Gussie Moran
Gertrude Moran was born on Sept. 8, 1923 in Santa Monica, California. She died when she was 89 years old in 2013 in Los Angeles.
Moran made it to two grand slam finals in her career. She and her partner Patricia Canning Todd lost to Louise Brough and Margaret Osborne duPont in the 1949 Wimbledon finals. Moran and her partner Pancho Segura lost in the mixed doubles finals at the 1947 U.S. Championships to Louise Brough and John Bromwich.
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Renee Richards
Renee Richards was 47 years old when she competed at the 1981 US Open. Richards was born male, and competed in the mens draw from 1953 to 1960. She then transitioned in 1975. Richards tried to play tennis professionally as a woman, but the USTA tried to require all women to be screened to verify their sex. She declined and was not allowed to compete in 1976.
Richards sued the USTA, and the case was eventually decided by Judge Alfred M. Ascione, who ruled in her favor. She competed in the women’s singles draw at the U.S. Open from 1977 to 1981. Her final U.S. Open appearance in 1981 saw her advance to the first round, but she lost to Andrea Leand 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 and was eliminated. Richards was 47 years old when she lost.
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Venus Williams
Venus Williams and her sister Serena took the tennis world by storm. Venus is two years older than Serena. They developed into fierce rivals on the court but were also dominant partners when they played doubles. Venus debuted at the US Open in 1997 and made it all the way to the finals when she was just 17 years old. She won the US Open in both 2000 and 2001 as a singles competitor and two US Open doubles titles with her sister.
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Oldest woman to win US Open singles title
There are two answers to this question because tennis history is split into two eras. There’s the championship era when the US Open was known as the U.S. National Championships and only allowed amateur players. Then, there is the Open Era that began in 1968 when the tournament was opened to amateurs and professionals, which eventually led to the name being changed to the U.S. Open.
The oldest woman to win the U.S. National Championships was Molla Bjurstedt Mallory who was 42 years old and won in 1926. The oldest woman to win the U.S. Open is Flavia Pennetta, who won at the age of 33 in 2015.
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Oldest woman to win US Open doubles title
The data surrounding this metric isn’t finite. When looking, many doubles pairings are listed by their combined ages and not their individual ages. We know that Lisa Raymond (38), who partnered with Liezel Huber (35) have the highest combined age of an all-woman doubles tandem that won at the U.S. Open with their title in 2011. There is a historical record that says that Hazel Wightman (41) is the oldest woman who is a doubles champion, but the record doesn’t specify if it was women’s doubles or mixed, so we can’t fully go with that. With the records being from 1928, they are hard to verify.
Our best research indicates it is likely either Raymond who was 38 when she won in 2011, or Wightman who was 41 when her team won in 1928.
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Oldest woman to win US Open mixed doubles title
The oldest woman to win a mixed doubles title at the US Open is Martina Navratilova. She was 49 years old when she won the title with Bob Bryan in 2006. Navratilova was about a month and a half shy of turning 50 years old during her championship run. She retired from the sport after her win saying, “Thank you for a great ride” and that she “would take this memory with me for the rest of my life.”
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