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It took 45 years to be in a position to set a record that has drawn so much attention. So another 14 1/2 minutes serving to keep her Australian Open hopes alive felt like no time at all for Venus Williams. Ranked No. 576 and playing on a wild-card entry, the seven-time major winner led 4-0 in the third set Sunday before Olga Danilovic rallied to win six straight games — getting the vital break in the extra-long, next-to-last game — for a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 victory. “It was an amazing journey on the court today,” said Williams, who left the stadium with a smile and a wave. Just by starting the first-round match, Williams became the oldest woman to compete in an Australian Open singles main draw, surpassing the mark set by Japan’s Kimiko Date, who was 44 when she lost in the first round in 2015. “I’m really proud of my effort today because I’m playing better with each match, getting to the places that I want to get to,” Williams said. “Right now, I’m just going to have to keep going forward and working on myself and working to control my errors. “Those are things, too, that come with playing extra matches … all of those things that I’m still learning. It’s kind of weird, but it’s super exciting to have played that well and to get myself in that position and come very close.” Tennis Jan 17 Djokovic's new approach for the Australian Open: '24 is not a bad number' Tennis Jan 16 How to watch the 2026 Australian Open: Schedule, TV channels, more to know She was 17 when she first made her Australian Open debut in 1998, reaching the quarterfinals. This was her 22nd trip to Melbourne Park, where she lost finals to her sister, Serena, in 2003 and 2017. Williams was married in December to Andrea Preti and the couple traveled together in Melbourne. Williams was determined not just to break Date’s age record. She wanted to punctuate the occasion with a win that may just set up another match against Coco Gauff. After splitting the first two sets, Williams went on a roll and dropped just five points across four games, hitting some vintage winners. Then No. 68-ranked Danilovic found range with her big left-handed forehand returns and put Williams back under pressure. “I told myself before the match I really want to take this moment — playing against Venus Williams is something I can’t take for granted,” Danilovic said. “At 4-0, I said ‘just play.’ “It was such a pleasure playing against such a legend.” At 4-4 in the deciding set, Williams served for 14 minutes and 28 seconds, saving two break points and setting up game points of her own with powerful winners and clutch aces, before she finally succumbed. “It was such a great game, such a great moment. The energy from the crowd was amazing. That lifted me up so much,” Williams said of that penultimate game on her serve. “She played a great game. Also, some luck there, as well. That’s just the sport. That’s how it works sometimes. But it was an amazing moment.” Danilovic calmly served out, clinching it in 2 hours, 17 minutes when a Williams forehand clipped the net and landed just wide of the line on match point. Williams entered the Australian Open on a five-match losing streak since the first and only win in her comeback to the tour at Washington last year. Her U.S. Open comeback last August also ended in the first round. “Yeah, at 4-love I felt good. Also, it’s the biggest lead I’ve had since I’ve been back,” Williams said. “In a lot of ways I’m having to relearn how to do things again, if that makes any sense.” She’ll keep that process going in the doubles at Melbourne Park, then she’ll think about her schedule for the rest of 2026. “Right now I’m very much in the tournament,” she said. “My next focus is the doubles. So that’s where my head is.”

““60 Minutes” on Sunday aired its story about Trump administration deportations that was abruptly pulled from the newsmagazine’s lineup a month ago, a move that had triggered an internal battle about political pressure that spilled out into the open. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi made no reference to her dispute with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss in the story about deportees who had been sent to El Salvador’s notoriously harsh CECOT prison. When the segment was struck from the Dec. 21 episode on Weiss’ orders, Alfonsi told her “60 Minutes” colleagues that it “was not an editorial decision, it was a political one.” Weiss had argued that the story did not sufficiently reflect the administration’s viewpoint or advance reporting that had been done by other news organizations earlier. The story shown Sunday included no on-camera interviews with Trump administration officials. But it did include statements from the White House and Department of Homeland Security that were not part of what Alfonsi had used before her story was pulled. Some of statements, which were carried in full on the “60 Minutes” website, were dated prior to Dec. 21. “Since November, ‘60 Minutes’ has made several attempts to interview key Trump administration officials on camera about our story,” Alfonsi said. “They declined our requests.” Alfonsi did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press on Sunday. She said in her email that the administration’s refusal to consent to on-camera interviews was a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. CBS says it was always going to air the piece CBS News, in a statement said, that its “leadership has always been committed to airing the ”60 Minutes” CECOT piece as soon as it was ready. Tonight, viewers get to see it, along with other important stories, all of which speak to CBS News’ independence and the power of our storytelling.” Alfonsi’s report was the second of three on Sunday’s show, with the lead story being Cecilia Vega’s report from Minneapolis about ICE enforcement efforts and the protests to its tactics. The initial decision to sideline Alfonsi’s CECOT story became a flashpoint for critics who said the appointment of Weiss, founder of the Free Press website who had no previous experience in television news, represented an attempt by the network’s new corporate leadership to curry favor with Trump. Media Dec 23, 2025 Postponed '60 Minutes' segment on Salvadoran prison is streamed by Canadian outlet Television Dec 22, 2025 '60 Minutes' holds off on airing critical piece on Trump deportation policy While pulled from the broadcast in December, Alfonsi’s original story mistakenly became available online. CBS News had fed a version of the newsmagazine to Global Television, a network that airs “60 Minutes” in Canada, which posted it on its website before the last-minute switch removing the piece. That enabled sharp-eyed viewers to see what Weiss had rejected, offering the opportunity to compare it to what “60 Minutes” eventually put on the air. The body of the story was unchanged. It included a brief clip of President Donald Trump saying the prison operators “don’t play games,” and one from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that “heinous monsters, rapists, murderers, sexual assaulters, predators who have no right to be in this country” were sent there. Alfonsi’s introduction was updated to lead with the Jan. 3 U.S. raid that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, currently held in U.S. custody. She changed the end of the story to include the administration comment, including its explanation for not providing detailed records on the migrants sent to El Salvador. The administration also provided photos of tattoos worn by the two migrants Alfonsi interviewed, including one swastika that the interviewee said he had gotten as a teen-ager not knowing what it meant. The…

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