Venus Williams lost her 17th consecutive singles match on Monday, falling 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Hong Kong Tennis Open to fellow American Mary Stoiana in 77 minutes. The winless run dates back to July 2025 for Williams, 46, a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, who said after the match that her future plans were up in the air.

Other first-round results

Fourth seed Maria Sakkari of Greece advanced to the second round with a 6-1, 6-4 win against Carol Young Suh Lee. Sixth seed Xinyu Wang of China beat Adithya Karunaratne of Hong Kong 6-1, 6-1, and eighth seed Katie Boulter of Great Britain posted a 6-2, 7-6 (2) win over Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic. Katie Volynets was swept by Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.

Chennai opener rained out

Elsewhere on the WTA tour, the opening day of the Chennai Open was rained out. Indonesia’s Janice Tjen is the defending champion and top seed at that event. Williams, whose run of defeats now stretches across more than a year, remains one of the most decorated players still competing, but her latest defeat extends a difficult stretch that began in the summer of 2025.

Sources: Reuters WTA roundup, 2 November 2026.