Hailey Baptiste praises Venus Williams ahead of US Open doubles

Hailey Baptiste described Venus Williams’ performance in the first round of the U.S. Open as “incredibly inspiring” and is looking forward to seeing the tennis icon compete in the women’s doubles draw, which will begin later this week. 

It was announced on Tuesday that the 45-year-old Williams received a wild card entry with Leylah Fernandez, extending the American’s time at the grand slam a little bit longer.

Baptiste, who defeated Katerina Siniakova on Tuesday, 7-5, 6-3, to punch her ticket to a second-round matchup with Naomi Osaka, previously played with Williams at the DC Open last month in the doubles tournament and looks back at the experience fondly. 

“It was an incredible experience for me,” Baptiste said when asked about it by The Post. “She was so fun to play with. We had an amazing crowd behind us in my home tournament. That was something I’ll never forget.”

And as the 23-year-old rising tennis star looked ahead to Williams playing in the U.S. Open doubles tournament, she expected it to be as thrilling as her first-round match was in the singles tournament. 

“That will be exciting to see her,” Baptiste said. “I’m glad that she was able to have a good competitive match [on Monday] and that she can continue in the doubles. I hope that she does well.” 

Williams’ effort on Monday night drew a thunderous applause from the New York crowd after she fell to the No. 11 seed, Karolina Muchova. Baptiste praised it as an example of Williams “still giving the best players in the world a tough, tough time.” 

“I think she shut up a lot of people,” Baptiste added. 

The 23-year-old will be looking to make some noise of her own when she enters the second round against the 2018 and 2020 US Open champion on Thursday. 

Baptiste has been seeing her game grow, especially this year when she reached the fourth round of the French Open and the third round of Wimbledon — her best finishes at the majors — and reached the best singles ranking of her career earlier this week at 47th. 

Baptiste and Osaka have previously met twice this year, once at the Auckland quarterfinals and the second time at the Miami Open. 

Osaka got the better end of the matches both times, but Baptiste is still excited for a third chance to face Osaka. 

“We had a crazy match in Miami, so I’m super excited. It will be a super fun match. The crowd, hopefully, will be behind me. I know she’s a past champion, but I’m American,” she said with a laugh. 

Playing with a tennis great didn’t hurt last month in Washington, D.C., and when asked what the biggest lesson she learned from that experience with Williams, Baptiste was quick to respond. 

“That you can’t listen to outside voices. So many people saying so many different things, giving their opinions,” she explained. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what other people are saying, it’s what you think and what you believe.”