How Venus Williams Met Her Love Match in Andrea Preti

Aug 30, 2026 - 13:38

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How Venus Williams Met Her Love Match in Andrea Preti

Venus Williams Marries Andrea Preti in 5-Day Palm Beach Wedding

Venus Williams has yet to evolve away from tennis.

The 46-year-old has taken breaks from the game, some health and injury-related, but also to go live life—such as when she married actor-director Andrea Preti multiple times last year, swapping vows in Italy before making it official in her adopted hometown of Palm Beach.

But unlike sister Serena Williams, who returned to the sport this summer after seemingly calling it a career in 2022, Venus never bothered to retire. And while you can't say she hasn't lost a step—the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion hasn't hoisted a trophy in a decade—showing up is the win.

"I do what I do because I want to live life the way I want to, unapologetically, with no regrets, on my terms," Venus told Tennis last August. "Do my terms always come out the way I want them to? No. But at least I tried to live on my own terms, and that’s super important to me."

So, 29 years after her U.S. Open debut, Venus will be back in action this week, having accepted a wild card to play doubles with Serena and compete in singles at Flushing Meadows.

But whether the 2025 doubles quarterfinalist pulls off a rare solo win or not, Preti will be at the forefront of her cheering section.

In fact, it was Preti who "really encouraged me to keep playing," Venus told Rennae Stubbs in July 2025 at the Mubadala DC Open in Washington, D.C., where she was playing for the first time in 16 months. "There were so many times where I just wanted to coast and kind of chill.”

And after her opening match victory made her the second-oldest woman to ever win a singles match on the WTA Tour (Martina Navratilova set the record in 2004 at 47), Venus also took the opportunity to reveal that she was engaged.

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Despite being in the public eye for three decades, the athlete and entrepreneur has kept her dating life extremely private, not least because she was usually too busy doing her own thing to make time for relationships.

“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."

But while on a sisters' trip to Lake Como during Milan Fashion Week in June 2024, Venus met Preti at a Gucci event she was invited to at the last minute.

"I told her, ‘You’re so beautiful,’ and then she started speaking with me in Italian,” Preti, who was born in Denmark and moved to Italy as a teenager, recalled their meet-cute to Vogue after their December wedding festivities. "We had a little talk, and I asked if she wanted a drink."

Venus, who had been single for six years, appreciated that Preti was "a normal person."

As in, she told The Knot in February, "He wanted to call me. A lot of people don't want to call or talk on the phone in this day and age of dating."

And he continued to do "all the right things," Venus said. "He took the time and the energy to come see me. We met in Italy, and then the next week I was in London, and he took the time to come all the way [there]."

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Preti also was by her side when she underwent surgery for uterine fibroids a month into their relationship. "We were going through a lot," she told Vogue, "and he supported me."

But even after only a few dates in London, "I just knew I was going to marry him," she remembered. "People always say they just know, and I just knew."

Preti got the message, proposing in Tuscany on Jan. 31, 2025.

Also keeping her relationship status under wraps, Venus sounded noncommittal about returning to tennis while attending the Miami Open that March, sharing in a tournament video, “I really don't have a plan for the first time in my life."

When Venus did return to the game a few months later—and won her first match—she emphasized afterward that she had "nothing to prove" and was "here for me because I want to be here."

And, win or lose, she was appreciative that her body was obliging.

“When you play unhealthy, it's in your mind. It's not just how you feel," she told reporters at the U.S. Open following a first-round singles loss. "So, it was nice to be freer.”

Getting match tough hadn't been easy, Venus admitted, noting that she took "no days off" preparing for the final grand slam of the year.

"I haven't gone to dinner. I haven't seen friends," she shared. "I haven't done anything except train for three months as hard as I could."

Venus understandably needed a break—"To stay interested in tennis," she explained to Oprah Winfrey in 2003, "I have to mix it up with other things"—so the following month, she quietly swapped vows with Preti in Ischia, Italy.

"But we didn’t have enough time to do the paperwork," Venus told Vogue, hence their subsequent week-long celebration in Florida that culminated in a civil ceremony Dec. 20, followed by a lavish wedding the next day.

Yet as much as they cherished tying the knot—"I can’t describe how beautiful, calm, sacred, exciting, and exalting it was," Venus told Vogue—the couple know that married life isn't an endless party.

So, they said "I do" to showing up for each other every day. "We focus on simple things," Preti, who said he was "very protective" of his wife, explained to The Knot. "Small things make a difference."

For instance, he shared, "Every morning, we say, 'Good morning. I love you.' I do it because I feel [it], but I also know that this is the right thing to do."

And Venus has vowed to bring the effort that made her a champion athlete to her marriage.

"Greatness was always about how I could give my best mentally, physically, emotionally. And if I had done that, I was great," she explained. And in a relationship, "greatness would be to continue to give that effort, even when it seems like you might not want to."

Being great didn't guarantee a win, Venus admitted, but "however you approach something, whatever you put into it, you're going to get out what you give."

See more tennis stars who've found love with a winning partner:

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Serena Williams

Few people are strong enough to volley back and forth with the tennis great. But Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian showed off some real skills during their first 2015 date. With Williams' assistant and agent tagging along, "They just bombarded me with questions—it was like two hours of interrogation," he recounted in an episode of her 2024 ESPN+ docuseries In The Arena. "'Do I have kids? Am I married?' Nothing was off limits."

Soon after, the answer to both was a firm yes, the pair welcoming daughter Olympia in 2017 before marrying later that year. (Daughter Adira rounded out the team in 2023.)

"Having someone as special as Serena as a partner is a consistent reminder of self-improvement," the tech entrepreneur explained to E! News in 2023. "I knew I have found someone I was going to spend the rest of my life with because she was someone who I knew I would never outgrow."

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Venus Williams

The seven-time Grand Slam winner nearly faulted on her forever with Italian actor-producer Andrea Preti. In Lake Como with her sisters, she received a last-minute invite to the Gucci show at the 2024 Milan Fashion Week, she recounted to Vogue ahead of their December 2025 vows, "and decided to go on a whim, and Andrea was tired. Neither of us was planning on being there."

But he aced his pick-up line and soon after they found themselves roaming the streets of London. Following those initial dates, detailed Venus, "I just knew I was going to marry him. People always say they just know, and I just knew."

Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Jannik Sinner

Even as the top player in the world, the Italian athlete knew he could ace a strong relationship. "Of course it's not easy, I travel a lot and during tournaments I'm very focused," he noted to Vanity Fair Italia in 2024. "But I think it's a wonderful thing when you find the right love. If you think about it, the best tennis players in the world all have wives and children."

And he seems to have met his match in Danish model Laila Hasanovic. Hard launching their romance in his 2025 Vienna Open victory speech, Sinner shared, "To understand me at times, it is not easy, but thank you for putting in the effort. Everyone here, with family, my girlfriend, friends."

Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Jessica Pegula

Well before the No. 4-ranked athlete wed fellow New York native Taylor Gahagen in 2021, they were in the same circuit. After Gahagen earned his MBA, he took a job working for her parents, who happen to own the Buffalo Bills.

And though he no longer holds court at Pegula Sports and Entertainment, he's still playing proverbial doubles with Pegula, serving as vice president of her skincare brand Ready 24 and helping run their charity, A Lending Paw. "We wanted to help people afford service dogs," Pegula told Vogue of their mission. "Not only is it about dogs helping people, it’s about people helping dogs, because we only work with rescues. It goes both ways."

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Aryna Sabalenka

Even after the WTA's current top player won the Brisbane International tennis tournament in January 2026, she continued to serve. "Thank you to my boyfriend," the Belarusian athlete shared, adding pointedly to Georgios Frangulis, "hopefully soon I can call you something else."

Fortunately, the Brazilian businessman didn't drop the ball. Two months later, he popped the question to his partner of two years with a stunning 12-carat custom diamond. "It was super cute," the Oakberry founder acknowledged in a June 2026 episode of the Open Residency podcast, "but I was already planning to propose long before that."

Instagram/@BenShelton

Ben Shelton

A new sporting power couple emerged when the tennis player and soccer star Trinity Rodman sealed their relationship with a kiss on Instagram in March 2025.

And she's been a stalwart supporter throughout the Grand Slam tournaments, including slamming reporters who invoked her estranged dad Dennis Rodman.

“For Ben’s matches he has his family there as his support system, which includes his dad,” Rodman wrote on a July 2025 Instagram story, calling out the Wimbledon broadcasters for their commentary about her family. “My dads not even in MY life no need to bring him up during HIS matches when I don’t even want him talked about during mine.”

Instagram

Taylor Fritz

After the pair met on Raya, Fritz made his relationship with Morgan Riddle official in 2020 with the influencer continue to root him on as he worked his wayup the ATP rankings.

“I met him and started travelling with him on the tour a few months later,” she told E! News in 2024. “And now, it’s been almost four years of that.”

However, in April 2026, Riddle confirmed that she and Fritz—who was married to fellow tennis player Raquel Pedraza from 2016 to 2019 and welcomed son Jordan in 2017—had broken up after six years together.

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Coco Gauff

For years, the two-time Grand Slam champ lobbed away any stories of her personal life.

“I think I felt like I just, some parts of myself I love to share and then some parts I think I just keep to myself,” she told People in March 2023. “So I do feel like my life is a little bit in my hands too.”

Still, boyfriend Jalen Sera—an Atlanta-based musician whose fourth-grade teacher was coincidentally Gauff’s mom—has proven to be an important sounding board.

"Last night, I started a little bit, but honestly, I just called my boyfriend," Gauff told reporters about her 2023 US Open Win. "And I told him let’s talk until it's time to go to sleep so we spoke until 1:00 am and then I went to sleep."

Steve Granitz / FilmMagic / Alexander Tamargo / Getty Images for Lacoste

Grigor Dimitrov

Dimitrov and Eiza González made their relationship Instagram official in May 2025, just one month after sparking romance rumors. And since then, the Baby Driver star hasn’t held back in showing her support for the athlete—including after he had to withdraw from the Wimbledon in early July 2025 due to a mid-match injury.

“Love of my life. I couldn’t be more proud of you,” González wrote on her Instagram Story at the time. "This is just a moment that will pass and will make you even stronger. But watching you today alongside the world was a reminder of who YOU are. You’re a winner. We all saw it. And you’ll do it again. I love you."

Instagram/@Katiecboulter

Alex De Minaur & Katie Boulter

After almost five years of dating, the tennis stars announced their engagement in 2024, with Boulter captioning the happy moment, “We’ve been keeping a small secret.”

The pair met in 2020 at a hotel where they were both staying. "We bumped into each other at six in the morning and ended up getting a coffee," Boulter recalled to the Sydney Morning Herald in June 2024. "From that moment, I knew I was in it for the long haul."

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Naomi Osaka

In January 2025, the four-time Grand Slam champion confirmed her breakup with rapper Cordae after five years together. And while emphasizing that they remain friends, she expressed gratitude over their romance as it brought them their 2023 arrival little girl Shai.

"Honestly really glad that our paths crossed because my daughter is my biggest blessing," Osaka wrote at the time. "And I was able to grow a lot from our experiences together."

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Tommy Paul

Paul may have the skills on the court, but his bride Paige Lorenze is a go-to coach when it comes to life outside the sport.

"She's been on me about, I guess it’s self-care," Paul told People in April 2025 of the woman he partnered up with in 2022."But just putting on more sunscreen and doing moisturizer at night."

Still, the Dairy Boy founder is no stranger to picking up a racket. "I'm not going to lie, I’m pretty impressed," Paul gushed about her tennis game. "She plays pretty good, she has the strokes down. She knows what she’s doing on the court."

She stuns off the grass as well, overseeing all the details of her and Paul's July 14, 2026 vows in New York.

"Having everyone we love together in one place was incredibly special," she shared with Vogue. "And in many ways, celebrating with them felt just as meaningful as celebrating each other."

Gael Monfils/Instagram

Gael Monfils & Elina Svitolina

The tennis stars are in sync on and off the court. In fact, they met after Svitolina won the 2018 WTA Finals in Singapore, going on to tie the knot in July 2021. A little over a year later, they welcomed their baby girl Skaï.

"I had the most amazing night of my life, which ended with the most beautiful girl around 6:00 am. Elina was strong and brave," Monfils wrote on Instagram in October 2022. "I can't thx enough, my wife, and God, for this special moment. Welcome to the world, my little princess Skaï."