Originally appeared on E! Online
It’s love all for Venus Williams.
The tennis phenom confirmed her engagement to Andrea Preti, an Italian model and actor, during the post-match interview of her first singles win in over a year.
When interviewer Rennae Stubbs asked Williams — whom she called a newly engaged woman — if Preti played a role in her comeback, Williams replied with a smile, “Yes, my fiancé is here. And he really encouraged me to keep playing.”
She continued, “There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill.”
After all, as the 45-year-old pointed out, tennis is no walk in the park.
“Do you know how hard it is to play tennis?” she asked with a laugh. “You guys don’t know how much work goes into this, like it’s nine to five except you’re running the whole time. Lifting weights and just like dying and then you repeat it the next day.”
She added of her fiancé, “So he encouraged me to get through this and it’s wonderful to be here. He’s never seen me play.”
And it was a good first match for Preti to witness, as Williams beat American player Peyton Stearns during the July 22 match up at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, D.C.
Game, set, match! Venus Williams is ready to serve at the 2025 Met Gala. The tennis phenom shares with Access Hollywood’s Scott Evans how much planning went into her custom, tennis-inspired Lacoste look for fashion’s biggest night alongside designer Pelagia Kolotouros, and reveals that she didn’t give sister Serena Williams a sneak peek.
Williams’ engagement news comes amid months of speculation that she and the 37-year-old had said yes to forever after she was seen wearing a diamond ring on that finger outside a training session in Rome in February. Fuel was only added to the fires when the tennis player once again stepped out with a noticeable diamond ring on her left hand during Milan Fashion week later that month.
Over the years, Williams — who was first linked to Preti in July 2024 after the pair enjoyed a boat ride together in Nerano, Italy — has been candid about being willing to let her life unfold in its own time.
“I have a lot of friends who don’t believe me when I say that I like my life and I don’t want to change it for any reason,” she told Cosmopolitan in 2021. “I’m not desperate and they don’t believe me. They say things like, ‘You’re going to miss your window.’”
She continued, “I’m like, ‘Please, relax. You might feel this way, but I don’t. I promise you I don’t.’”
And just one year later, Williams spoke to being ready to roll with whatever life brought her way.
“When life changes, you’ve got to know when to change,” she told Glamour UK. “You can’t hold on to either a relationship or the singleness.”
