“Venus Williams watch your own videos girl be serious” “She needs to go away” – Fans react to American crashing out in Miami Open 1R as wildcard

Venus Williams's disappointing loss to Diana Shnaider in the opening round of the Miami Open 2024 has invited questions from tennis fans regarding the rationality of her wildcard entry.

Williams fought hard against Shnaider on Wednesday, March 20, but the latter proved too good for the 43-year-old as she grabbed a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

Williams broke Shnaider's serve thrice but was broken a staggering six times herself. Both players won a majority of their points on the first serve as Williams maintained a 64 percent conversion rate and Shnaider sat at 77%.

This is Williams' sixth first-round exit from a tournament as a wildcard in her last seven on-court appearances dating back to Wimbledon 2023. She hasn't been able to win a title on the WTA Tour since prevailing at the WTA Elite Trophy 2015, and currently sits in 457th place in the world rankings.

The former World No. 1's string of failures has led to tennis fans on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that her best days are behind her. One of the fans suggested that her accepting wildcard entries into main draws of big tournaments was unfair to the younger generation.

"Why do people still act like its cool that Venus keeps taking spots from other players. She needs to go away. It's weird," the fan wrote.

Williams, who has begun teaching the intricacies of tennis through her YouTube channel, was advised by a fan to watch her own videos.

"Venus Williams watch your own videos girl BE SERIOUS," the fan stated.

A third fan wrote:

"Tournaments should stop giving Venus Williams wildcards, just putting them to waste."

Here are a few more reactions from X:

---

Venus Williams ended the 2022 season as World No. 1000

Venus Williams cries in pain at Australian Open 2021.

Venus Williams plummeted to No. 1556th in the WTA rankings in August 2022, days after losing to Rebecca Marino in the opening round of the Citi Open. That was her first singles appearance after her first-round loss at the 2021 Chicago Women's Open to Hsieh Su-Wei.

Venus skipped the second half of the 2021 season and the first half of the following season. She spent that time recovering from her ankle and knee injuries that she suffered at the Australian Open earlier that year.

Following her return to singles tennis in August, she crawled her way up the WTA rankings. But the American couldn't climb any higher than the No. 1000 spot by the time 2022 ended, as she didn't compete after the US Open.