By John Pye

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — It took 45 years to be in a position to set a record that has drawn so much attention. So another 14 1/2 minutes serving to keep her Australian Open hopes alive felt like no time at all for Venus Williams.

Ranked No. 576 and playing on a wild-card entry, the seven-time major winner led 4-0 in the third set Sunday before Olga Danilovic rallied to win six straight games — getting the vital break in the extra-long, next-to-last game — for a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 victory.

“It was an amazing journey on the court today,” said Williams, who left the stadium with a smile and a wave.

Just by starting the first-round match, Williams became the oldest woman to compete in an Australian Open singles main draw, surpassing the mark set by Japan’s Kimiko Date, who was 44 when she lost in the first round in 2015.

“I’m really proud of my effort today because I’m playing better with each match, getting to the places that I want to get to,” Williams said. “Right now, I’m just going to have to keep going forward and working on myself and working to control my errors.

“Those are things, too, that come with playing extra matches … all of those things that I’m still learning. It’s kind of weird, but it’s super exciting to have played that well and to get myself in that position and come very close.”

She was 17 when she first made her Australian Open debut in 1998, reaching the quarterfinals. This was her 22nd trip to Melbourne Park, where she lost finals to her sister, Serena, in 2003 and 2017.

Williams was married in December to Andrea Preti and the couple traveled together in Melbourne.

Williams was determined not just to break Date’s age record. She wanted to punctuate the occasion with a win that may just set up another match against Coco Gauff.

After splitting the first two sets, Williams went on a roll and dropped just five points across four games, hitting some vintage winners. Then No. 68-ranked Danilovic found range with her big left-handed forehand returns and put Williams back under pressure.

“I told myself before the match I really want to take this moment — playing against Venus Williams is something I can’t take for granted,” Danilovic said. “At 4-0, I said ‘just play.’

“It was such a pleasure playing against such a legend.”

At 4-4 in the deciding set, Williams served for 14 minutes and 28 seconds, saving two break points and setting up game points of her own with powerful winners and clutch aces, before she finally succumbed.

“It was such a great game, such a great moment. The energy from the crowd was amazing. That lifted me up so much,” Williams said of that penultimate game on her serve. “She played a great game. Also, some luck there, as well. That’s just the sport. That’s how it works sometimes. But it was an amazing moment.”

Danilovic calmly served out, clinching it in 2 hours, 17 minutes when a Williams forehand clipped the net and landed just wide of the line on match point.

Williams entered the Australian Open on a five-match losing streak since the first and only win in her comeback to the tour at Washington last year. Her U.S. Open comeback last August also ended in the first round.

“Yeah, at 4-love I felt good. Also, it’s the biggest lead I’ve had since I’ve been back,” Williams said. “In a lot of ways I’m having to relearn how to do things again, if that makes any sense.”

She’ll keep that process going in the doubles at Melbourne Park, then she’ll think about her schedule for the rest of 2026.

“Right now I’m very much in the tournament,” she said. “My next focus is the doubles. So that’s where my head is.”

___

More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis