Tennis Great Venus Williams Engaged to Former Model

Venus Williams has a lot to celebrate. 

The 45-year-old tennis great Venus Williams revealed she is engaged to actor Andrea Preti on July 22 after playing her first singles match in more than a year.

Williams bested fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-3, 6-4 to reach the round of 16 of the DC Open.

The victories made her the oldest player to win a singles match on the WTA Tour since tennis legend Martina Navratilova won in the first round of Wimbledon in 2004 when she was 47.

In a post-match interview, Williams said it was her fiancé Preti, encouraging her to play.

“There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill,” she said. “Do you know how hard it is to play tennis? You guys don’t know how much work goes into this, like it’s 9 to 5 except you’re running the whole time, lifting weights and just like dying and then you repeat it the next day. So he encouraged me to get through this and it’s wonderful to be here. He’s never seen me play.”

Preti is a former model. 

He recently began acting, including the Italian TV series "A Professor." More recently, he starred in 2023's Temptation and was a contestant on the Italian reality show La Talpa.

Venus Williams is part of one of the most famous sibling duos in sports history along with her sister, Serena Williams. 

She has been largely private about her romantic life. 

Williams and Preti were first spotted together in July 2024.

The couple sparked engagement rumors when Williams was seen with a ring on her left hand in February 2025.

Preti was born in 1988 in Denmark and spent most of his childhood there before moving to Italy with his family as a teenager, according to People.