Venus Williams has been grabbing all the eyeballs in the tennis world of late surrounding her comeback. The American legend hasn’t played for a year and was offered a wildcard entry into the main draw of the Indian Wells Masters this year. It could’ve been a golden opportunity for Williams to return to the court after being away from tennis for months. However, the former World Number 1 declined the invitation and the tournament authorities confirmed her absence from the tournament. Moments after this controversy broke out, Australian star, Ellen Perez offered her opinion on this matter.

Williams left one and all bemused over why she declined to play in the Indian Wells, despite being handed a wild card entry. Additionally, social media was left abuzz with rumors over the actual reason for her absence. Further, one of the fans dropped an inquiry about what could’ve been the reason for Venus Williams’ absence.

Replying to this, Perez wrote, “No clue. I personally find it very hard to believe that Indian wells would just assume a 44-year-old who hasn’t played a pro match since Miami last year and been pretty removed from the scene is accepting a WC without asking her first. But who knows I’ve seen dumber things happen.”

It only became known that Williams hadn’t accepted the wildcard when she revealed it on the Tennis Weekly Podcast. Williams said, “I’m not playing. I found out about the wild card when you guys did. Just saying. I love Indian Wells, I would love to be there and if I could have accepted it, I would have been like, yes. But I already made commitments…”

While Williams didn’t reveal the reason behind her absence, the Indian Wells tournament released a statement, confirming her absence. Although the American legend hasn’t played for long, she is yet to officially announce her retirement. Last year, she made a candid revelation on this matter.

Venus Williams on her retirement: ‘Serena ruined it for me’

Back in 2022, the younger Williams sister, Serena Williams called time on her illustrious career after the US Open. Since then, Venus Williams has played only a few tournaments, leading many to assume she had already retired. So when her younger sister announced her own retirement, Venus felt it stole her moment.

Talking about this, she said, “Sometimes they even think we’re twins. If you guys did think so, we are two separate people, born on different days. As that moment [I retire] gets closer, Serena ruined it for me. Because as soon as she retired, everybody thought I retired. I always thought that I would be just crying when I had to retire because it’s all you know and you spend your whole life programming your mind to do that every single day.”

Nonetheless, Williams is yet to announce her retirement and there is a possibility that she could feature for one last time, potentially at Wimbledon or the US Open before she calls time on her illustrious career. Can she have the last laugh before her retirement? Let us know your views in the comments below.